The girl who lived
by Sirius.Potterhead.2005
Summary: Holly Potter- the girl who lived. At the start of the year, she is rescued but will there be someone to save her throughout everything? Sorry if I get details wrong I try to avoid it!
1. Crime and punishment

_This story takes place in the fifth year. Everything else before this has happened like in the books/movies!_ Holly was sat on the swing in Little Whinging. A great mass of a 15 year old boy approched her.

"Oi! Potter! You and your girly arse wont want to see this!" Dudley was stood front and centre of a small pack of acne covered, funny looking teenage boys. There was a new addition since that morning but Holly thought it would be best if he wasn't there since he was the groups new punching bag. No matter how mean it sounded, Holly would rather it be that 10 year old than her since up until she had recived her Hogwarts acceptance letter- exactly four years prior, on her 11th birthday- she had been Dudley's punching bag, even though there wasn't much of her to punch. Thinking back to it, Dudley's gang would have been better off beating the shit out of Dudley since he was the biggest!

"Oi! Dursley! Maybe you should stop beating up 10 year olds and pick on someone your own size. That's if you can find someone as big as you!" Replied Holly with a smirk on her face. Dudley and his gang went silent, no one insulted "Big D" and got away with it! Dudley slowly approched her and the others followed, throwing the tiny ten year old to the floor.

"Just remember what I have against you!" Dudley stopped and thought- a very dangerous thing for Dudley to do. He weighed out the pros and cons of beating his cousin up. The pros were: he gets to beat his cousin up. The cons were: He could potentially be killed by this magic stuff Holly had been learning while Dudley had been at Smeltings.

"Yeah well I don't have PTSD over a 'traumatic life'! Oh no- your parents are dead! What a shame- this guy Cedric is gone! What else? You gonna start crying every night 'cus your two little friends stop writing to you?"

Holly was building up her anger. Somehow Dudley knew that her friends hadn't written anything to her all summer. This is the point in which she wished that she had the ability to use wandless magic on command! Sadly, she hadn't yet mastered that. All summer she had been trying but failing. Often it was tryig to let Hedwig out of her cage but sometimes it was to attempt what she had done when she was ten... Make Dudley fall through a window. She did this only when they were both on the top floor of a building because then when Dudley hurt himself, all the kids living on Privet Drive would be safe from becoming that day's punching bag!

"Alot of the time I wish that your parents didn't die 'cus then I wouldn't have to look at your face every day. Then again if your parents lived, who would I beat up?" That was the breaking point. This fat oaf had just openly said that he was glad that Holly's parents were dead just so he had someone to bully. Immediately, she got up off the swing and pointed her wand at Dudley's neck, the tip prodding his flabby skin. Momentary fear flashed across his face before he reagined composure so his friends didn't think he was scared of a stick!

Before she could do any magic, Dudley had grabbed her glasses and threw them to the floor! Holly put her wand back into her pocket and crouched down to find her glasses. She found them and put them on, just as she did, her older cousin kicked her over. Without thinking, she punched him in the face. His nose went crack and blood started to trickle down his face. Dudley then proceeded to turn the same shade of purple that Uncle Vernon did whenever he was pissed. Before Dudley could punch her back, she took a step back so that he stumbled forward and fell over. Then he grabbed he ankle and they started to fight on the ground. Holly rapidly stood up- Dudley tried to follow her but couldn't. He groaned as he held his ankle. Holly rolled her eyes as it couldn't have been that bad! Then, when her cousin finally got up, she noticed he had an open fracture! Surely Holly couldn't have done that by making him trip over- maybe she was better at wandless magic than she thought! Soon enough, police sirens blearing in their ears. Holly's eyes widened. _I can't go to jail! I have to go back to Hogwarts!_ However there was no negotiating with the policeman as he handcuffed the pair of teenagers.

At the police station, Holly and Dudley were taken into separate rooms to be interrogated.

"Did you assult that boy first or were you defending yourself?"

"He was insulting my dead parents so I did punch him."

"Did he assult you when you didn't present yourself as a threat?"

"Yes. He took my glasses and pushed me over. He then tripped me up and I hit my head on the floor!"

The policeman took a few notes and left the room without speaking. When he returned, he told Holly to stand up and then follow him. He lead her to a jail cell.

"You'll be in here for the rest of the summer. As will your cousin. Your bail isn't very high and you may have up to three phone calls. Also empty your pockets!"

Holly handed over the small amount of change she had in her hoodie pocket and was relieved that her wand was in her waistband so she wouldn't have to give it over. Opposite her, Dudley was doing the same thing with a guard that couldn't have been much older than him!

After about an hour, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Pertunia were lead over to Dudley's jail cell by an elderly guard. Pertunia was crying since "her little Dudykins was in prison!" Meanwhile, Vernon was bright red. As they payed the bail, Holly was shot a look. It was a mixture of _how fucking dare you_ and _finally, we've got rid of_ _you_!

The three Dursleys left the police station and Holly was alone in her cell. Sat in the dark with no one else anywhere near her. Somehow, it seemed like home. But not the nice home that was surrounded by nice people and happiness. It was the place she had to call home for the first 11 years of her life and had to do the same every summer!

Holly checked the clock on the wall. It said 11pm. A guard could be heard walking down the cell corridor. This would be lights out. Then she would be awoken at 6am for breakfast then her whole day would be dictated. Then her week, then her summer! To her surprise, the guard wasn't alone. Two people joined him. One farmiliar face- Remus Lupin, her third year defence against the dark arts teacher and one who she hadn't seen before. She was sporting a long bob of pink hair and was referred to as Tonks by Lupin.

A key in the lock turned and the guard grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her out of her jail cell.

"Your free to go. But anymore trouble and it will be longer than a month you stay in here!"

"Yes officer!" Holly said while nodding her head before walking off with Remus and Tonks in silence until they got outside.

"Thank you so much guys! I really appreciate it." Holly said as the two adults turned to look at her.

"I don't think you've ever gone one birthday without being in trouble!" Remus said. "When you were 11, you were taken away then hunted down by Hagrid. When you were 12, you ran away to the Weasleys. When you were 13, you blew up your Aunt. Last year there was that Quidditch World Cup incident and this year you were thrown into a muggle prison for what was it?"

"Assulting Dudley. But he did deserve it!"

Remus and Holly looked over at Tonks who was trying to disguise her laughter with coughing but was failing completely.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help it! It's just you get into so much trouble but are still considered one of the greatest wizards ever known!" Said the pink haired lady.

"Just like your father!" Said Remus with a little smile as he remembered all the happy memories they had shared!

"Wait! What are you even doing here?" Asked Holly, only just realising that her old Professor and someone she had never met before were in Surrey, bailing her out of a muggle prison.

"Well what else would we do apart from rescue you?" Remus said as a swooping noise could be heard around the corner. "Ah! Just on time!"

The three of them went down a little alleyway and were met with the faces of Mad-eye Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Potter here's your broom. Your trunk and Hedwig have already been apparated there but we shouldn't apparate with you because your underage. Quite dangerous, especially in large groups!"

"What? Where are we going?" Asked Holly, completely confused by the whole situation.

"You'll find out when we get there. Now get on your broom and follow us!"

Within minutes of being bailed out of jail, Holly was soaring through the air on her firebolt. She had only used it twice, once when she first got it from her Godfather Sirius and the next when she was fighting a dragon! Now, she was flying over the UK having no clue where she was going or why these people were settig her free! Two of them were her teachers, one being a warewolf that tried to attack her and the other had been locked in an enchanted trunk all year so she actually had no idea whether he was like the person disguised as him or completely different! The other two people accompanying her she had never met! One of them- Kingsley Shacklebolt- had been in the paper once as he worked at the Ministry but the other was a face Holly had never even seen!

After around half an hour on brooms, Mad-eye gave a little hand signal and then dove down go the ground, and everyone else followed. As usual, Holly kept flying towards the ground until the last minute before pulling up, stopping and dismounting her broom.

"No need to use your fancy flying techniques Potter! It's only us." Holly blushed when Moody said this. Luckily it was too dark to see the slight pigmant change in her face. Everyone followed Mad-eye out of the little park area where thay had landed and came out onto a street full of little appartments. Three taps with Mad-eye's giant stick and the whole appartment block began to separate. Holly looked into the windows and all the muggles seemed oblivious that their home was currently moving and reshaping itself to fit in another house.

"You going to go in or not?" Holly looked around to see everyone staring at her and wating for her to enter the eerie looking building. After growing up in a muggle school, she still sometimes found herself doubting whether a place was safe or not. She only tended to do this when she was away from Hogwarts as Dumbledore would never let something that could involve kidnapping or death be near the school- and when he did he always made sure people stayed away from it!

The door creaked as Holly pushed it open. The corridor was long and narrow with a few portraits of important looking witches and wizards. She reached the staircase, still not knowing where she was and everyone passed her to go into the next room.

"Top floor, first on the left!" Remus whispered in her ear as he followed the rest of the adults. Once everyone had left her, Holly started to climb the stairs. She knew she shouldn't be afraid since these were people she could trust. But still, the whole house had a bit of a frightening feel to it!

"Serve the family until it dies out. Never disobey your master or mistress! If you speak badly of your master or mistress you must be punished! Serve the family..." A small creature muttered until Holly came into sight. This was clearly a house elf but it was nowhere near as cute as Dobby had been when Holly had seen him 3 years ago! The large golf ball eyes narrowed as Holly walked past the wrinkled creature. When she proceeded to the next floor, the house elf started to recite the lines again...

"Serve the family until it dies out. Never disobey..."

Holly reached the top floor and went along the corridor until she reached the first door. People were muttering but she couldn't tell who it was because of the thick walls. The door swung open at her touch and five people turned to look at her.

"Hello there. We were wondering when you would finally get here!" Said Fred and George simultaneously.

"Your trunk and Hedwig have been here for a few hours now!" Added Ron pointing to the corner where Hedwig sat in her cage and her trunk was at the foot of a bed.

"You were meant to be here way earlier! Your three hours late!" Exclaimed Hermoine.

"You better do some explaining, every time I asked for something to eat mum said 'Holly will be here any minute and then I'll cook some food!'" Said Ron sounding sarcasticly annoyed.

"Yeah where were you. We've all been really worried!" Ginny added to Hermoine's comment.

"Well I didn't know I was coming. Then I got arrested and..."

"Hold up! You were arrested?!" Hermoine said, extremely concerned.

"Yeah its not a big deal!"

"Yes it is mate! What did you do?" Said Fred curiously.

"Did you finally try to blend your Aunt and Uncle?" George said super exited about the thought of causing that much chaos.

"What?! No! Why would I blend someone?" Holly said, now extremely worried about George's mental health.

"We met your family. We know you've considered it!" Added Fred.

"No I just got into a fight with Dudley. Then someone called the police, he got bailed out and my Aunt and Uncle left me there!"

Everyone sat in silence for a few seconds before George started to clap. Then Fred joined in, followed by Ginny and Ron. Hermoine sat looking offended that all the Weasleys were applauding Holly for getting thrown into jail.

"Do you guys even know what prison is?" Hermoine snapped, astonished that they were congratulating the girl for getting into suh bad trouble.

"Yeah it's like the muggle version of Askaban but without all the dementors!" Said Fred.

"We were put in there once. For causing crowding in the middle of the road. It was when we first got our wands when we were 11. We counjured a lion in the street so no one could get through. Mum had to wipe the police officers memory for that day!" Added George as the door behind Holly creaked and the small house elf entered.

"Kreacher has come to tell you all that dinner is ready and that you are wanted in the dining room!"

"Thank god! I'm starving!" Said Ron as he jumped off the bed and headed towards the door. Unsurprisingly, he ran downstairs and walked into the dining room so he could start eating. Holly was last in and when she entered, she was greeted by Mr and Mrs Weasley and the four people who had rescued her. However there was only one person she was really exited to see...

Sirius Black!


	2. The birthday party

As Sirius Got up from his seat to greet his Goddaughter, Holly ran over to him and gave him a big hug!

"I've missed you!" She said, realising that she had never really seen Sirius properly. The last time they had spoken had been via the fireplace and the last time they had spoken in person was at the end of Holly's third year but Sirius was still in his Askaban jumpsuit and was looking a little insane from all the dementors sucking the joy out of him day in day out!

"I've missed you too!" Said Sirius pulling away from the hug and looking at Holly straight in the eyes. "But! Don't go and get yourself arrested on the day we are scheduled to come rescue you!" Sirius raised an eyebrow at her as Holly tried her best not to fight him on it about how much Dudley had deserved it.

"Now all the resposible adult bit is over! I would have done anything to see that fight! I don't care if I would have been thrown in Askaban again!" Holly burst out laughing. That was definitely not the response she was expecting!

"Don't encourage her!" Shouted Mrs Weasley while she was dishing up a Sunday dinner.

"It's not my fault! She's a Potter through and through! Anyway can I recall that she did spend more of her childhood around you and your kids than me." Molly stopped serving everyone food and raised her left eyebrow at Sirius.

"Hey!" Said all the Weasley kids, relatively offended.

"Thats it. Your having extra veggies Sirius!" Said Molly jokingly.

"I take it back. Please! Everyone know dogs eat meat!" Sirius begged before turning into his animagus form and running over to Mrs Weasley. Molly just rolled her eyes in response as Sirius retuned to his human form. All the kids were laughing as the two adults were having this childish arguement over vegetables and once everyone had regained composure, the room was silent because everyone was so hungry!

It was 4am. Everyone else had managed to fall asleep apart from Holly. She still had Cedric's death replaying in her head every night when she closed her eyes. It was torture! When she was awake, she could see all the people who she cared about. They were all so nice to her. What would she do if it was them who had been there at the graveyard? Then when she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, those thoughts would turn into pictures and she would have to open her eyes before it became unbareable!

Holly sat up in bed and reached for her glasses. She pulled her duvet over her head, lit her wand and started to read. Ever since Cedric had died, she would carry a little book of children's fairy tales like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Rumplestiltskin around with her. It was a bit like her coping mechanism. Whenever she was scared, she would read these stories set in far off places, with good magic always beating the bad in the world! However, Holly knew all too well that life wasn't like that. In real life, the bad always seemed to outweigh the good and you were never in a far off place where someone can journey to rescue you. You had to fight your own battles sometimes. That's what Holly knew she would have to do at some point. There will be a time when no one is there to rescue her. No friends. No family. Not even strangers! She would be alone.

Holly got out of bed and sat at the window. Even Hedwig wasn't there. She was off hunting small rodents to eat. The girl desperately wished that her owl would find and eat Peter Pettigrew, the man that betrayed everyone in his life out of fear! But what were the chances? Just as she was about to get lost in her thoughts, the door opened, with an very quiet creek. Sirius entered the girls' room and came to sit with Holly.

"Why are you awake?" He whispered so he didn't wake the other two sleeping girls in the room.

"I couldn't sleep. Every time I try I just see him. Dead!" Holly said under her breath. "Anyway, how did you know I was awake?" Holly enquired.

"Well when your a black dog, you tend to blend into the shadows a little more than most people do!" Sirius said with a wink as he nodded towards the small garden Holly had been sat in plain sight of.

"Do you want to try and get some sleep? It is 4am and if your anything like your father was then you wont want to get up!" Sirius said with a small chuckle as he remembered his few years with James.

"Yeah. I'll try. I wont get much though!" Holly said as she stood up.

"Me and you both! I'll see you at breakfast. Or maybe lunch. Depends on how late I get up!" Sirius said with a wink as he walked off, closing the door silently behind him. Somehow, Holly felt alot better now than she did before. The fact that her Godfather was also not able to sleep- maybe due to fear or just stress that the wizarding world was falling apart- made her feel a little more normal!

Surprisingly, after Sirius had come to talk to her, Holly didn't wake up during the night. However, it was currently 11am and everyone else must have been downstairs. Holly quickly got dressed and went to meet everyone- who was probably in the living room. As she stepped through the door, she was taken aback at how there were a few presents waiting on the side for her and how everyone was telling her "Happy birthday!"

"Why are we celebrating my birthday? It was yesterday." Holly said, still rather confused. _Do these people not know when my birthday is? Some of them were probably there at my birth and some of them have celebrated all of my birthday's since I was 12!_

"Well since you were arrested and we had to bail you out and fly you here at 11pm, we thought it would be a good idea to celebrate today." Said Mrs Weasley with a kind smile. These people never failed to amaze Holly. It didn't matter that the previous day she had got into enough trouble to be arrested or that she stayed up until 4am then didn't get out of bed until 11am! They still cared about her as if she was their child.

Holly took the empty seat next to Ginny and was handed a present that, by the wrapping paper, she knew was from the Weasley family. To be sure, she checked the tag and- as she knew- it was from them.

Holly opened it to reveal a beautiful blue dress that would be perfect for a formal event, if only she had one to go to! The next one was labled from Remus and Tonks- Holly still didn't know what Tonks' connection to the group was but she did know that she was a really nice person. This one had all the textbooks Holly would need that year in it. She smiled to herself as the only person who had actually been her Professor had got her the textbooks she needed.

"We all got ours earlier in the holiday." Said Hermione as Holly placed her books on the floor. Kingsly and Mad-eye had both got her enough sweet treats to last a lifetime and the final present was from Sirius. It was a beautiful little antique mirror that had a carefully molded gold handle on it. When Holly looked into it, she saw the whole room at a strange angle. She looked up at Sirius, who was giggling gently.

"I did the same thing when I first saw one! It wont show your reflection, its been enchanted to link these two mirrors together." He pointed to a mirror hanging by the fireplace. "It will show you whatever is in the others reflection. That way we can always see each other whenever we want!"

Holly smiled. Everyone here was so kind to her that it made her completely forget her thoughts of the previous night. It seemed as though all these people would always be there, to fight with her- and in return she would try and do the same for them!

The rest of the holiday passed pretty quickly. Everyone celcelebrated Ginny's birthday and before she knew it, Holly was going back to Hogwarts.

The large group of witches and wizards walked though Kingscross station. People gave them strange looks as the group of 12 people and a dog- only the 6 children wheeling along trollies piled with trunks and pets- walked past them. They reached the wall between platforms 9 and 10 and after checking whether anyone was watching, everyone started to run towards the wall, 2 or 3 at a time. When everyone was through, all their trunks were put on the luggage carridge. When Holly was about to board the train, so she could get comfy before the train pulled away from the station, she felt a nudge at her knee. She looked down to see a black dog tilt his head towards a little waiting room that no one was in. Holly followed him and opened the door for her Godfather and as soon as it was shut, he turned into a human so the two could have a conversation.

"I'm going to miss you." Holly said as she looked into Sirius' eyes.

"If you do then just look in the mirror. I'll never be to far away because I'm still wanted in the eyes of the public!" Holly smiled and hugged Sirius.

"Now you need to go!" He said, ruffling Hollys hair. "Its nearly 11! Oh and before you go, I want you to have this. Its a photo of the first Order of the Phoenix." Sirius handed Holly a folded peice of paper before turning back into a dog and ushering her out the door.

Holly boarded the Hogwarts express and went to find everyone. Ron and Hermione were sat in compartment near the back of the train. Holly opened the door and sat down, putting hedwig down in her cage next to her. As the train started to pull ot of the station, the trio stood up to wave goodbye to all the adults that were stood on the platform.

Holly had had yet another sleepless night. Despite her extitement to return to Hogwarts, it wasn't enough to weigh out the death she had experienced just a few months prior. Also, she wasn't as joyous to get away from home since this time, she wasn't leaving number 4 Privet drive- she was leaving number 12 Grimmauld Place. And Sirius. Holly fell asleep almost immediately as she couldn't focus on what Ron or Hermione were saying. She didn't know how long she had been asleep but it didn't feel like long.

"Holly! Holly! Holly are you alright?" Holly opened her eyes to see Hermione panicking over her. Ron held out his hand and helped her up off the floor.

"You ok? What happened?" Ron asked as Holly blinked, her eyes ajusting to the sudden light.

"Yeah I'm fine! Just Cedric's death again." Holly tried to act normal. After living with the Dursleys all her life, she had grown to be an excellent liar. She wasn't actually replaying the death or the heroic Hufflepuff- she wasn't really sure what it was but assuming she fell asleep and was woken up by her friends because she was on the floor, she took a wild guess that it was something to do with Voldemort. As she thought about him, a shot of pain seared through her scar. She didn't want to give anything away so she just bought her hand to her forehead like she was just scratching it.

"It was Voldemort wasn't it?" Hermoine said as though she had been defeated by Holly's lie. Holly didn't respond, she just dropped her eyes so she wasn't looking at her two best friends.

"You need to tell us about this stuff! We're your friends!" Ron added with a concerned tone.

"Sorry. It's not that big a deal anyway!" Holly said as she flinched when Hermione widened her eyes at the comment she had just said.

"Holly! It is a bit of a big deal! Don't just toss his name about like he didn't try and kill you when you were a baby and then when you were 11, 12 and 14!" Hermoine shouted while repeatedly hitting Holly on the head with a rolled up newspaper.

"Hermione! Stop! The girls just fainted!" Ron said while yanking the newspaper from the annoyed girl's hand. Hermione shot both of them a death stare as uf they had just given her parents death threats.

"I just think your not concerned enough!" She said while taking the newspaper back and continuing to read it.

The rest of the train ride was uneventful. Holly didn't go back to sleep, in fear of repeating what had happened earlier. When they pulled into the Hogwarts station, they saw Hagrid with a large lamp and huge grin as he made eye contact with Holly, Ron and Hermione. Once the train had stopped, they all got off and walked over to Hagrid.

"Hello you three!" Shouted the half giant. "How have you been?"

"Good. Some minor issues here and there. But on the whole it was a good summer." Holly said before the other two could say anything about her getting put in jail.

"I would hardly call it a minor issue!" Hermoine chimed in. Just because Holly had spoken first didn't mean that the other two had lost the ability to speak!

"What trouble have you got into now then?" Hagrid asked while raising one eyebrow.

"Holly here got arrested and put into muggle prison!" Ron said while crossing his arms.

"What d'you do that for?"

"Well I may or may not have beat up my cousin!" Holly said awkwardly. Hagrid stood and blinked at the small 15 year old before he put his lamp down to applaud her.

"Well done! I'm proud of you- that git deserved it from what I saw of him on your 11th birthday!" Holly smiled then started to laugh as she remembered what Hagrid had done to Dudley when he was eating all of Holly's birthday cake.

"Now all yous aren't 1st years so you need to go to the carriages! I'll see yous all later!" Hagrid said while pushing them over to the gates and shouting for the first years to stay where they were.

The trio went over to where there were usually millions of carriages. But now there was only one left. Neville and a bright blond girl were sat talking. Neville was practically cuddling a cactus and the girl was reading a magazine upside down! Having no other option, the three others squeezed onto the end of the carriage.

"Hello Holly, Ron, Hermione!" Said Neville cheerily. "How was your summer?"

"Well apart from Holly getting arrested- it was great!" Hermoine replied.

"Is it necessary to tell everyone in the world that I was arrested?" Holly said while rolling her eyes at Hermione.

"Anyway." Said Neville rather awkwardly. "This is Luna. Luna Lovegood."

"Hello Luna." Said Ron, trying to avoid the drama.

"Oh. Hello Ron!" Said Luna in a soft rather high pitched voice. "And Holly and Hermione of course!" There seemed to be something a little strange about the girl. But she seemed nice so who was Holly to judge.

"I feel like the thestrals have grown since last year!" Luna remarked like everyone knew what a nargal was.

"Thestrals? Whats a thestral?" Asked Ron consused as to what Luna was on about.

"Thestrals. They're the things pulling that carriages!" Everyone turned to look at the front of the carriage. Holly had only just noticed that there was a black, skeletal looking winged horse.

"Well they do seem very big. But I've just noticed them today!" Holly said aas Luna started smiling.

"What are you all on about?" Asked Neville, looking back and forth at the front of the carriage and the pair talking about thestrals.

"Yeah! There isn't anything pulling the carriage!" Said Hermione- also very confused.

"Oh they are there. You just can't see them." Luna said casually. "Holly you saw Cedric Diggory die. Thats why you can see them!" Holly tensed up as Luna said his name. She still hadn't fully come to grips with the fact that she watched someone die!

"Oh look we've arrived!" Said Ron, trying to save an awkward situation. He climbed out of the carriage and helped Holly and Hermione down before all five of them headed towards the front doors of Hogwarts castle.


	3. Strange proposal

Everyone settled into their seats as Dumbledore rose from his chair.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts. I'm sure all of you had a good summer but now, we must welcome our new students who are to be sorted into their houses."

As he said this, a small army of 11 year olds swarmed into the hall, following Professor McGonagall. She resumed her usual spot infront of the teachers table where she read out everyone's names from a scroll of yellowed parchment. The sorting hat was held up by Dumbledore and after the first kid had sat on the chair, he placed it on her head. Holly started to zone out, remembering what her sorting had been like. She still imagined what would have happened if she had been sorted into Slytherin like the sorting hat wanted her to. Just as she was thinkig this, the people around her all exploded with applause and Holly copied them to make it seem like she was paying attention. After everyone had calmed down, Holly fell deep into thought again. She was now thinking of what Sirius had told her.

 _"I'm going to miss you!"_

 _"If you do just look in the mirror, I wont be too far away!"_

Those words kept replaying in her head. She had only just arrived and she already wanted to shut the curtains on her four poster bed, cast a silencing charm and talk to Sirius- hiw was she meant to make it to Christmas?

After the welcome feast was over, everyone was taken to the common room by the prefects. Now that they were 5th years, they had been pushed even farther back in the queue to get in!

"Periculum autem comr!" Shouted the head boy to the portrait of the fat lady. "Did everyone hear that?" A crowd of nodding heads answered him. "First years stay in the common room everyone else can do what they want until ligts out!"

Holly, Hermione and Ginny all went up to their dorm rooms together. They said goodbye to Ginny as she went into the fourth year rooms and they continued up the stairs. Considering how many stairs were at Hogwarts, Holly was very tired after climbing up to the fifth year rooms! She followed Hermione into the room- they were the first ones there but there were only two trunks in the room- one of them with the letters 'HG' on it and the other with 'Holly Potter' engraved onto it which Sirius had done for her in the holidays. Hedwig had obviously already been put in the owlery as her empty cage was placed on the floor next to her trunk.

"Guess it's just us this year!" Hermione said, sitting on her bed. "Let's hope it doesn't get too lonely!" Holly smiled up at her. She was actually really glad that she would only be sharing with Hermione. Sometimes when the room was full, Holly found it hard to concentrate on anything over the noise of 5 teenage girls! Now all the noisy people were in the other rooms and Holly and Hermione could finally focus on their own thoughts! At 11pm, the head girl came to tell the two girls that it was lights out and they needed to get ready for bed. They nodded at her and got up from their beds to dig their pyjamas from their trunks. Holly took her unruly hair out of the messy ponytail it had been in and let it fall down to her hips. Not ever being allowed a haircut because it was 'a waste of money on someone like Holly' meant that it had got to be very long ever since Aunt Pertunia stopped trying to cut it when Holly had been 10!

Hermione started attempting to scrape her puffy hair into two braids as Holly strted putting her pyjamas on. When she looked over to the girl doing her hair, Holly noticed that her mouth was hanging wide open.

"What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?" Holly said, confused as to what Hermione was staring at.

"Holly. Your even tinier than you were last year! Did you even eat anything before we collected you?" Hermione said letting go of her hair with a furrowed brow.

"Yeah. I had a few snacks every now and then." Holly said- trying not to admit that she went every other day without eating.

"Well how long is every now and then?" Hermoine said while walking up to her and grabbing Holly's bony wrist that looked like it could snap if she held it too hard.

"Umm... I ate something every other day!" Holly finally admitted because Hermione was staring into her soul, forcing the truth out of her. When she said this, Hermione seemed to stop breathing for a moment before letting go of Holly's wrist and bringing her hand to her mouth.

"Holly!" Hermione's voice cracked as though she was about to burst into tears on behalf of her friend. "Promise me you wont keep going back there. Actually promise me you wont go back there ever!" Hermione had a glossy sheet over her eyes as she stared at the malnourished girl, waiting for an answer.

"I promise." Holly said before Hermione physically started crying. "Now go to bed. It's not that big of a deal!" Holly said- knowing Hermione wouldn't let her say that.

"I'm not going to argue with you on this. Yes it is! You were being starved! Stop trying to make it less important than it needs to be!" Said the glossy, slightly red rimmed eyed girl while pulling Holly in for a hug.

Holly and Hermione both drifted off to sleep. Hermoine's beeing alot deeper as within what must have been an hour or two, Holly woke up. It wasn't Cedric this time, it was something similar to the one she had experienced on the train ride here. Her scar hurt even more than it had done before. She gripped her forehead in pain and dug her nails into her leg, trying to lessen the pain seering through her head. She winced as her nail actually managed to scratch through her skin and draw blood. If Hermione had been awake, she probably would have marched her over to Madame Pomfrey so she could be put on some sort of medication to actually put something on her bones that wasn't just skin!

Soon, Holly fell asleep again. The breif talk she had shared with Sirius earlier that night had calmed her alot. Talking to his face was alot better than seeing him made out of ash and embers in a fireplace. It made her feel more at home- like she was talking to him in person. But it still wasn't the same. In a way, Holly wished she had stayed at Number 12 Grimmauld Place so she could see Sirius- the only proper guardian she had left! Of course, the Weasley family had never failed to take her in but she just felt a little distanced- like she didn't really belong with them. Seeing their whole family all together just reminded Holly that her's was gone and she could never bring it back!

The rest if the night, Holly probably got around another hour of sleep altogether. Thankfully, Hermione didn't wake up really early as she usually did last year in order to wake Holly up so she wouldn't be late. Today, Holly woke Hermione up at 7.04am. This was very frustrating for her as she was a whole 14 minutes behind her morning schedule. Holly found it strange that Hermione felt it necessary to have a set morning routine but then again, she was the most organised out of anyone in the school- including the teachers and she had a homework plan for what time she does each subjects homework!

Holly was ready within half an hour since she didn't care much for her hair being perfect or her uniform being perfect. She just got dressed and got on with her day.

"Well your hair is straight and mines a frizzy mess!"

"Yeah but if you just leave it then it will be fine!"

"But if I leave it then by first period it will have puffed out so much that I wont be able to see!" Holly just rolled her eyes at Hermione. She didn't care that her hair wasn't perfect, she only cared about being able to see what she was meant to do that night for homework! After about 15 minutes of attacking her hair with a hairbrush, Hermione finally got it into a ponytail.

"Ready?" She asked Holly who had been sat staring at the bed post for 20 minutes. In response, Holly raised her eyebrow and walked out of the room laughing. It was nice for the two of them to be alone in the room. It was comforting that she could talk to people staying at Number 12 Grimmauld Place and not be worried about people seeing Sirius and getting the two of them thrown into Azkaban!

As Holly and Hermione entered the Great Hall, they saw Ron sat with Neville and Ginny on the Griffindor table.

"Morning ladies!" He said as the two girls came to sit down. "A bit behind schedule are we Hermione?" A flustered looking Hermione stared at him with unblinking eyes. Scared for his life- or just his face- Ron snapped his mouth shut and inched away from Hermione slightly. After all, him and Holly- and especially Draco- had experienced her exceptional right hook!

Holly checked her timetable after she finished eating- and Hermione made her eat more than she usually did after the previous night. _Great! Potions first thing on the first day!_ Holly, Hermione and Ron all made their way to the classroom near the dungeons and grabbed a seat. As the rest of the class settled down and stopped talking, Professor Snape glided out of his office.

"It's lovely to see all of your ugly faces return to my class this year!" He said with a sneer, making sure to make eye contact with Holly as he did. "I wonder how many of you will actually pass your OWLs, nevermind get a grade good enough to do it at NEWT level!" He said, once again looking at Holly with a smirk. "Over the past four years, I feel as if I have been much too nice to all of you. Now you are in you OWL year, I feel it necessary to create a seating plan for all of you. Get up and stand at the front the lot of you!" Snape pointed harshly at the front of the classroom and glided to the back of the room so he could observe all the fifteen year olds at once. He glanced quickly at his register and listed names off, making sure no two people from the same house were placed next to each other and taking a favour to the Griffindor, Slytherin combination. There was only one person left. Holly was stood on her own at the front.

"Potter. Your here!" Snape gestured to the empty two seater desk infront of him before resuming his usual position at the front of the classroom. As he began copying out the recipe on the chalkboard, one last person walked through the door.

"I was with Dumbledore." Snapped the harsh tone of Draco Malfoy before Professor Snape could interrogate him on his whereabouts for the first ten minutes of his lesson.

"Mr Malfoy please sit in the empty seat next to Miss Potter." Said Snape in a cool toned voice, not looking away from the chalkboard.

"You've got to be taking the piss!" Hissed Draco. "You really think that's a good idea?"

"It is my classroom I will do as I please. Now go and sit in the empty seat next to Miss Potter!"

Draco unwillingly made his way over to the back right corner of the classroom to where Holly was sat, mouth slightly parted from shock of having to work with this nutcase for a whole year!

"Trust me. I'm no happier than you are about this!" Holly whispered loudly to Malfoy.

"I never said I wasn't happy about this. Do you realise how good a bullying opportunity this is? I can get to know how much you fail!" Holly just rolled her eyes and waited for Professor Snape to finish the recipe on the board. "Anyway, I already have some leaverage against you and it's the first day back." Holly raised an eyebrow at the platinum blond haired boy with an evil smirk painted across his face.

"And that is?" Holly asked, wanting to know what she could have possibly done. _Could Draco have found out about Sirius? No! They had been much too careful when talking and writing to each other!_

"I mean that little fainting fiasco in the third year seems like nothing compared to what I saw!" Malfoy whispered at Holly. "One moment you were just sleeping, you must have had a bit of drool on your chin aswell, the next moment you were having a full on seizure! It was hillarious!" Holly scowled as Draco sat laughing at her. "Anyway- stop being so lazy and get the ingredients!"

"But your a foot taller than me! You can actually reach the top shelf!" Holly argued.

"We are in a magic school. You have a wand don't you? I'm sure you can think of something!" Draco said, cutting Holly off from the rest of her argument.

"But..."

"10 points from Griffindor for talking when work should be being completed!" Called Snape from the front of the classroom. Holly untucked her stool to get up and get the ingredients for the potion. Malfoy was still sat in his chair, running his hands through his hair and swinging back on his chair while Holly had to get everything!

"Are you going to help at all today?" Holly asked, starting to get annoyed that even though Draco was taller to reach the top shelves and stronger to carry everything, he still made Holly do everything!

"Well I can't do anything when I don't have the ingredients." Draco said, his smirk growing.

"Well why don't you fucking get them dickhead!" Holly said, clenching her jaw.

"Don't swear Miss Potter. Another 10 points from Griffindor." Snape called, not even looking up from his papers. Holly didn't say anything for the rest of the lesson apart from the name of the ingredient she needed. She decided it would be best to communicate with Malfoy via death stares and annoyed sighs.

The end of the lesson couldn't come fast enough. Holly couldn't wait to get away from Draco Malfoy- the annyoying dickhead who had been bullying people, including herself since she rejected his friend offer in the first year! Snape dismissed the class and they all swarmed towards the door, fighting to get out of the classroom first. Holly, who now was positioned as far away from the door as possible, was at the back of the small huddle. Soon enough, everyone had filtered out the classroom and was making their way over to the next class. Holly was walking relatively slowly since she couldn't see Ron or Hermione anywhere! Just as she caught sight of a head of fiery red hair, a cold hand grabbed her tiny wrist and she was pulled aside.

Holly and her abductor were in a dark corridor where she could barely see, despite there being light not too far away.

"Who are you? I can't see a thing!" She whispered. As she did, a cool voice spoke.

"Let me add some light into the situation!" A small ball of fire flew from the tip of his wand and lit a tourch on the wall.

"What the fuck are you doing Malfoy?" Holly hissed with a tightened jaw.

"Well I just thought since we need to sit next to each other in potions for the year, it would be a good idea to become friends- if not friends then acquaintances!" Draco suggested while leaning against the wall.

"And scaring me by pulling me into a dark corridor and not saying anything until I ask you who you are is the best way to go about it... Obviously!" Holly said sarcasticly. "If I'd have thought of that method when I was younger, I would have had loads of friends at primary school!"

Draco didn't respond to this comment, probably thinking back to how weird that was. After a few seconds, he held out his hand for Holly to shake.

"Well what do you say? How about we make it work?"

"I rejected you when we were 11 for a reason. And I'm doing it for the exact same reason now!" Holly said before turning away, leaving Draco in the dark corridor alone.

Luckily, Holly had had a free period and she went back up to the common room. Ron and Hermione were there but everyone else had presumably gone to the library to study for their OWLs even though it was tge first day. Either that or Ron and Hermione had managed to scare them off!

"Where have you been?" Ron asked, looking over his shoulder at the small black haired girl who had just entered through the portrait hole.

"I was just asked where to go by some first years. They also asked for my autograph. It never stops being weird!" Holly lied as she sat on the floor next to the fire.

"Well if you want them to stop then you need to stop being so heroic all the time!" Hermione joked as Holly rolled her eyes. The trio carried on with the conversation. Well Ron and Hermione did, Holly sat there- nodding her head every now and again to make it seem like she was paying attention. In reality, she was playing the conversation with Draco over and over again. _Why does Malfoy want to friends? Is he doing this because Voldemort wants him to? Why now- after four years of picking on Ron, Hermione and I?_ These thoughts washed around her mind all day. It got to lights out before she said anything about it.

"Hermione." Holly said as the two sat down in bed, Holly with her glasses off and messy hair down and Hermione with a book on her lap and braiding her hair again.

"Yeah."

"What would you do if someone who had been mean to you all their life just wanted to be like best friends?" Hermione blinked at Holly.

"Well it depends on the person. Who is it?" She asked, a little skeptical.

"Um. Dudley. Yeah he wants to be friends!" Holly knew Hermione wouldn't believe her since she was such a bad liar.

"Holly. I know it's not your cousin. Even if you were an amazing liar, you literally got arrested for assulting him this summer!" Hermione said, looking up from her book and raising her eyebrow.

"Fine. Let's just say it's a hyperthetical question. What would you do?" Holly sighed.

"Well if they just made fun of me every now and then, I would accept their offer but if they went out of their way to make me miserable then I would tell the to piss off."

"Ok. I'll bare that in mind... If it ever happens to me! Cus you know, hyperthetical question!" Holly said awkwardly as Hermione rolled her eyes. _What category would Draco fall into? Did he go out of his way? No he's just in all my classed and we go to the same school and our houses' tables are right next to each other in the Great Hall!_

The next day in potions, Holly went and sat at the back where she knew Draco would soon come and sit. When the class started to make their potions, Holly replied to Draco's offer.

"I'll try. But only if your nice and don't bully anyone!" Draco looked momenterily confused before smiling.

"Really?" He asked, surprised at the girl's response.

"Yeah... You can start by getting everything we need for the potion!" Draco immediately stopped smiling and rolled his eyes.

"We've been friends for 5 seconds and your already high maintenance!" He said as Holly swung back on her chair with a smirk. This was going to be fun...


	4. The new Professor

"This is meant to be a friendship- not you controlling me!" Draco hissed. It had been a month since the two of them had decided they should try and become friends.

"I can only control you if you let me!" Holly pointed out with a smug smile painted across her face. Malfoy then shot her a death stare and in result, they returned to square 1; not that they had ever really left it!

After the lesson, Draco practically stormed out of the classroom.

"What did you do this time?" Ron asked as Holly walked out, trying to contain her laughter as she could see Draco over-dramatically strutting down the corridor.

"I was being 'controlling' because I told him to pass me all the ingredients. I mean it's not my fault he was doing it wrong!" Holly said rolling her eyes.

"Well why don't you tell him how to do it if he's not getting it!" Suggested Hermione. In truth, Draco had been doing it right all along it's just Holly didn't want to admit that.

"Please he's a drama queen!" Ron scoffed. "He wouldn't take advice from anyone, never mind Holly!"

"He has a point!" Said Holly shrugging her shoulders.

"Just a suggestion!" Hermione said. "It's not like every time you didn't follow my advice you were nearly killed!" She muttered so the other two couldn't hear her.

"What do we have now?" Ron asked. "I left my timetable in the dorm!" The two girls rolled their eyes- they both knew that was Ron-ish for 'I lost my timetable but I'm not going to admit it.

"Defence against the dark arts. The new teacher has finally got here!" Hermione said. She was bored of supply teachers. She just wanted to learn something.

"Took their time!" Holly said.

"I'm sure they had a very good reason for not being here!" Hermione said. "We might have another warewolf. It has just been a new moon!" She whispered as not everyone had figured out that Professor Lupin had been a warewolf.

"Hello class. Sorry I haven't been in for the past few weeks. I was only just told yesterday that I would be teaching defence against the dark arts this year!" Said a young man who couldn't be too much older than the students themselves. "My name is Professor Zorander." Most of the girls in the class either exhaled deeply or fluttered their eyelashes when the Professor turned around to write his name on the board. Holly didn't understand why everyone immediately started swooning over the new Professor because he was young. All the students were younger than him but people took a look at most of them and didn't care about a possible relationship with them.

"Does everyone have their wands?" Asked the Zorander. Everyone looked at him as if he was stupid. "I was just checking. When I went to Ilvermory, there was one kid who never had his wand with him. Wouldn't surprise me if he's been put in a local wizarding jail for the accidental exposure of magic to muggles." A faint whisper drifted across the room as they discussed how strange the new teacher was and undoubtedly, how that made him 'so cute!'

"Well anyway thats a story for a different day! Today we will be practising protective spells. Get with a partner!" Hermione and Ron went off together and Holly paired up with Luna.

"Hi Luna!" Said Holly, a small bit of exitement in her voice at the thought of just being able to do as they pleased.

"Oh. Hello Holly! Have you ever done any defensive spells before?" Asked Luna, her icy blue eyes blinking.

"Well I protected myself and my Godfather from a swarm of dementors in my third year with a patronus charm." Holly admited as she thought what her time travelling self would be doing. Probably sleeping since they went back quite a few hours.

"Wow! Do you think you could do it now?" Asked Luna hopefully.

"Um. Maybe!" Holly said, searching her mind for the happiest memory she had. Then, her brain locked on her 15th birthday celebration. Everyone was there and they were all being so nice to her. "Expecto Patronum." As Holly cast the charm, a large silvery stag emerged from her wand. It was nice to see that part of her father remained within her in the form of her patronus. After a few seconds, Holly realised that everyone was staring at her. This caused her to break her concentration and her patronus dissappeared.

"Miss Potter is it?" Asked Professor Zorander. Holly nodded her head quickly. "Excellent patronus! 50 points to Griffindor!" Holly blushed, all the Griffindors started clapping and the Slytherins started whispering to each other. _Why did you make me Luna? Just why?_

The end of that lesson couldn't come fast enough. When Professor Zorander said they were free to go, Holly practically ran to get out of the room. That was until he called her back.

"Miss Potter. Can you come here a moment!" Holly exhaled, annoyed that she couldn't go and hide in the common room. She turned on her heels and entered the classroom, shutting the door behind her.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Asked Zorander while sitting on his desk.

"My third year." Holly quickly answered.

"Yes there were alot of dementors then. On the hunt for the murderer Sirius Black right!"

"He's not a murderer!" Holly snapped without thinking. _Oh shit! How do I get myself out of this one?_

"No? How would you know that?" He enquired, curious as to why the fifteen year old infront of him was defending a mass murderer!

"Well. Um. He." Nothing was coming to mind so she had to tell the truth. "It was Pettigrew!" She blurted. Professor Zorander looked very confused.

"Pettigrew was one of the murder victims!" He said with a raised eyebrow.

"No! He was an unregistered animagus! He cut off his finger and turned into a rat! And everyone blamed Sirius." Holly said, almost without breathing.

"How do you know all this?" He asked suspiciously.

"Um..." Holly didn't want to out Professor Lupin by saying he was best friends with a suspected murderer. "He was best friends with my dad. He wasn't even the secret keeper for our hiding place!" Holly wasn't sure if she had said too much. So she just left, not wanting to be interrogated any farther.

"What was all that about?" Asked Ron who was waiting outside the classroom with Hermione.

"He just wanted to know where I learned the patronus charm." Holly said. She was technically telling the truth- just not the whole truth!

"Oh. Well Ronald here has suggested that since we didn't go to Hogsmede much last year because we were all too busy sorting you out so you didn't die, that we should take a quick visit!" Hermione said in that voice that let the other two know she thought it was a bad idea.

"I'll go with you Ron!" Holly said, just to annoy Hermione a little.

"You two are idiots. But I'll come with you because if I don't you'll both die! Or at least get in trouble. But knowing you for the past four years leads me to believe that dying is the more likely option!" Said Hermione as the trio reached the portrait of the fat lady.

"Periculum autem comr." Hermione announced and the portrait swung open to let them in. Ron went up to the boys dorms to get changed so they wouldn't be caught as Hogwarts students if they were seen and Holly and Hermione went up to the girls side.

They entered their room and got changed into regular clothes. Holly grabbed her invisibility cloak and the marauders map before the two went to meet Ron in the common room.

"Took your time!" Ron said, standing up from the chair next to the fire.

"Ronald we are girls- unlike you, we go through our entire wardrobe twice before we pick a pair of pyjamas!" Hermione said as they exited through the portrait hole again.

The trio waited for no one to be near them before they draped the cloak over their heads. Holly then checked the map to make sure no one was near them and they went through the secret passage that lead straight to Honeydukes.

The shop was empty, there was no one inside, not even a worker. The trio took this opportunity to steal just a few sweets before trying to leave. Even though Ron had lived in a magical world his whole life, he kept forgetting that locked doors weren't an issue.

"Don't tell me that we're stuck in Honeydukes!" Ron whispered.

"At least we won't starve if we are!" Added Holly optimistically.

"Oh please! Wake up both of you!" Hermione said, pushing infront of the other two. "Alohamora!" She said and the door gently swung open with a cold breeze.

"How do you remember all that?" Ron said, astounded by Hermione's memory.

"Yeah the last time I remember you using that spell was in the first year!" Holly added.

"I remember it because neither of you do. I swear I have enough memory for all of us to share!" Hermione said while the other two rolled their eyes.

Once the trio was outside and out from under the invisibility cloak, they noticed that the whole village was temporarily abandoned. The large gate that was usually wide open was locked and all the shops that were usually bright and colourful were all dark and empty.

"Why is everything closed?" Holly muttered.

"Maybe it's a sign that there is a killer coming to get you two for being stupid sometimes!" Suggested Hermione. And as she did, a voice from behind them made them jump.

"I thought we established the exact opposite two years ago!" The three turned around to be greeted by a smiling face.

"Sirius!" Holly said, throwing her arms around her Godfather. "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah sorry to break it to you but just because we know the truth doesn't mean that everyone knows your not a raging lunatic and mass murderer!" Added Ron as the four of them began to laugh.

"Let's just say that that new defense against the dark arts teacher really likes dogs and is willing to give me somewhere to stay!" Hinted Sirius with a small wink. Just as he did, someone emerged from the three broomsticks. Like lighting, Sirius turned into a dog and ran and sat down on the cold floor.

"What are you doing here?" Shouted Madame Rosmerta from the door of the pub. "Can you not see the village is closed? How did you even get in?" She was rapidly approaching them now and the trio knew she would recognise them all- Ron and Hermione from being here before alot and Holly from just being Holly!

"Well! Look who we have here! Potter, Weasley and Granger! What are you three doing in Hogsmead?" She said while placing her hands on her hips and raising an eyebrow at them. "If you leave now, I'll forget you were ever here. Now shoo! All of you. And take your dog with you!"

The three kids and the dog all left. This time they had to go through the gate which meant that they would get into trouble if they were seen coming back into the castle. They threw the invisibility cloak over themselves, apart from Sirius- he went in dog form. Before they entered the castle, Holly checked the marauders map to make sure no one was there to see them. Luckily, no one was there and the invisibility cloak was pulled off them and stuffed into Holly's bag. Just before they entered the school, Sirius stopped. The trio was confused as to what he was looking at but then they realised that Holly was holding the marauders map. The map sirius had helped make. The map that Sirius, James and Remus had made together. Looking back, Sirius realised that Peter did nothing to help them make it, he just sat and watched as the other three drew it out and charmed it. Then he looked up at Holly, Hermione and Ron. He could see James, Remus and himself in them. Thankfully, they didn't have anyone who represented Peter.

The three said goodbye to Sirius as he went back to Professor Zorander's office- where they now knew he would be staying as a dog- and they all went up to the Griffindor common room. Holly was obviously exited that Sirius was in the school and that she could visit him almost whenever she wanted. She jusy hoped that he had bought the mirror with him and somehow managed to keep it undetected.

"Do you think Dumbledore knows?" Asked Holly when the common room was empty.

"Knows what?" Ron said, slightly confused at the random question.

"That there is a certain dog living with a teacher."

"I doubt there is anything he doesn't know!" Hermione pointed out.

"Then why doesn't he give him somewhere to stay?"

"Come to think of it, I'm not sure!" Realised Hermione.

"Should we tell him?" Suggested Ron.

"I think we should. I mean he is a human being. He deserves somewhere proper to stay!" Said Holly.

"Well we can do that tomorrow before breakfast because Professor McGonagall will be here in two minutes reminding us that it's lights out for the older students." Hermione said after checking the time. And sure enough, McGonagall walked the portrait hole precisely two minutes later, telling Holly, Ron and Hermione that she wouldn't leave until the three of them had gone to bed.

Knowing that Sirius was somewhere in the castle meant for Holly that she actually had a good nights sleep. It was the first time in months that she hadn't woken up in the middle of the night and just stayed awake.

"Holly. Holly wake up we're going to be late!" The next morning, Holly was awoken to Hermione shaking her rather violently and telling her to get up.

"Wait. What time is it?" Holly asked, sitting up and reaching for her glasses.

"Its 7.40! I wanted to let you sleep in since I know you've been having trouble but then when I checked on you just now you were still asleep." Hermione said while pulling the tired girl out of bed.

"I'm up don't worry. You go have breakfast I'll just get ready." Holly said while picking up her robes from where they were draped on the end of her bed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Anyway I still have a couple Honeydukes sweets left over!" The two of them laughed as they thought back to the previous night.

"Ok I'll see you first lesson then." Hermione said as she walked over to the door. "Bye!" She said before shutting the door behind her so Holly could get ready.

As Holly got dressed, she thought back to her sleepless nights. _Did I wake Hermione? Was I that bad_ Once Holly was ready, she made her way down to potions. _Why did I take potions?_ _It just means I have to endure Snape for a whole extra year!_ Holly got there early so she just sat at the back of the classroom, waiting for everyone else to arrive. A few minutes later, she heard footsteps and assumed it was just the rest of the class, but when she looked up there was only one person- Draco Malfoy.

"What's wrong with you?" Holly said furrowing her brow. Malfoy's eyes were red-rimmed and his breathing was shakey.

"Why would it bother you?" He sneered.

"Well I don't want to be that girl who saw someone had been crying and didn't do anything about it!" Draco glared at Holly as she said this.

"Oh yeah. Lets tell the whole school that Malfoy cried. Why don't we also tell them that your little dog friend is here?" Holly's eyes widened- did he know that Sirius was Sirius or did he just think that she was breaking the rules by having a pet that wasn't on the list at the start of each year?

"Yeah! I know who that is! Your Godfather was disowned by my mothers family. He deserved to be!"

"Don't you fucking dare say a thing against him! He did the right thing!" Holly went up to Draco and pointed her wand at his face.

"Potter! Lower your wand from Mr Malfoy's face!" Snapped Snape as he entered his classroom. He looked a little scared as Holly whipped her head to look at him. "If you don't lower your wand you will have detention for the rest of the month for endangering another students life intentionally!" He said in a surprisingly calm voice. Holly lowered her wand and put it in her pocket.

"20 points from Griffindor for threatening a student and 10 from Slytherin for being in the classroom unsupervised without anyone's knowledge! Now take your seats."

"Yes Professor." Both of them said while walking to the back of the room. A few seconds later, the rest of the class filed in and took their seats. Snape stood at the front as he usually did and wrote the instructions on the board. As the class started on their potions, Holly and Draco stayed silent. Somehow, both knew what the other was going to get so they got away without talking to each other.

"I'm sorry." Holly said eventually, just as Snape was about to dismiss them.

"No. It's my fault. I shouldn't have provoked you." Draco said, surprisingly being kind about it.

"Ok. Just don't say anything about him to anyone. There are a few people who don't really like him." Holly said, shooting a look at Snape."Also he's still pretty wanted."

"I promise. Anyway, I still want to try and be friends."

"Class dismissed!" Snape called from the front of the room and Draco just left. He left Holly with a huge question.

 _Why does he want to be friends?_


	5. The attack

Once again, Holly spent her day mulling over what Draco had told her.

"What is it now?" Hermoine asked. Holly looked up confused.

"Don't make that face. You know what she's on about!" Ron said before Holly could protest.

"Nothing." Holly replied. Ron and Hermione both raised an eyebrow at her."Dracowantstobefriends!" Holly blurted out, one word not distinguished from another.

"Yeah try it again but in English!" Ron said rolling his eyes. Holly knew it was too late to change her mind about telling them.

"Draco wants to be my friend." Holly whispered nervously.

"Right funny joke! What did you really want to tell us!" Said Ron, dissapointed by the news.

"I'm telling the truth! Since the start of the year he's wanted to be my friend! Have you not noticed that we haven't actually argued so far and we're a month into school!" Holly said, slightly offended that Ron thought that other people wouldn't want to be her friend!

"That is a record!" Pointed out Hermione as Ron sat staring at Holly, trying to find a part of her that was lying.

"Don't! He's, as Hermione put it, a foul loathsome evil little cockroach!" Ron said as Hermione rolled her eyes as he direct quoted her.

"Well I think you should at least try to be his friend because it would mean less fights that we have to sort out!" Hermione argued.

"But he's Malfoy! I think he just heard the word friend from someone else and then asked Holly to be the thing he doesn't actually know anythung about!" Ron exclaimed.

"Holly- try it and if it doesn't work then I will help you with whatever fights you get into but if you don't then your on your own. I'm sure Ronald will do the same!" Hermione glared at Ron as he crossed his arms.

"Fine." He muttered so it was barely audible to the other two over the crackling of the fire.

The next morning at breakfast, Holly watched Draco come into the Great Hall alone. He sat down away from his Slytherin friends and barely ate a thing, just sat reading the daily profit. Immediately, Holly felt bad for the boy because she was surrounded by all her friends, alot of them not even in her year, but he had no one. Holly only noticed that she was staring when Malfoy looked up and they made brief but unnecessarily awkward eye contact. Holly smiled at him but he just ignored her, stood up and left as quickly as possible.

"Holly? Holly?" Holly hadn't been paying attention at all to the conversation that had been going on.

"Yeah?" Holly said, unsure of what she was agreeing to.

"I told you she was!" Ron protested.

"Well unlike some Ronald..." Holly immediately zoned out again. She didn't really care much about what they were talking about. She wasn't quite sure what she was thinking about. It didn't matter enough to stay in her memory. She was very deep in thought when let out a small yelp.

Next to her was a black dog who had just jumped up onto the bench.

"Padfoot!" Holly said, almost like a loud whisper. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh hi S- Padfoot." Ron said, being cut off from revealing the dog's true identity by Hermione elbowing him in the ribs. Just as they were about to make themselves look like idiots because they were having a full conversation with a dog, someone came up behind them.

"Are you stealing my dog?" Asked Professor Zorander. The trio who had been talking to Sirius then looked up and remembered him saying that the defence against the dark arts Professor had given him somewhere to stay.

"He must like us." Said Hermione with a little laugh. It was a little bit scary how good of a liar she was.

"What was that you called him. Was it Padfoot?" The three of them nodded. "I like that. When did you come up with it?"

"Oh just the other weekend when we met him outside the castle." Holly said, also sounding weirdly convincing.

"Anyway, have a good day I'll see you last thing." He patted Padfoot on the head before walking off, the black dog following along.

"Now we must look like lunatics!" Holly said as soon as Professor Zorander was out of earshot.

"I doubt that." Said Hermione while giggling to herself.

"Why is that then? We were sat talking to a dog!" Ron furrowed his brow at Hermione as if she had gone crazy.

"I just have a feeling that he understands what we're doing." Hermione had a small twinkle in her eye that soon disappeared as Draco Malfoy walked past. Ron glared at him as he brushed past Holly, his robe sleeves hitting her head. She looked back, going to give him an annoyed look, but he was too far away. _Where is he going. Is he going to the first years? Surely not!_ Just as Malfoy reached the teachers' table, he made a sharp left turn before sweeping off through the door in the far left corner of the Great Hall.

"Where's darling Draco off to then?" Ron practically spat.

"Ron! It's not like Holly and Draco are dating! They haven't even established that they're friends yet!" Hermione snapped, causing Ron to flush a faint pink.

"Are you implying that we will date?" Holly said, almost disgusted. She was willing to be his friend but the thought of them being a couple made her stomach drop!

"No! But come to think of it, you would make a cute couple!" Hermione joked as Ron rolled his eyes.

"Nope! I'm sorry but I don't know what other people see in him!"

"Thats more like it! See she does hate him!" Ron exclaimed.

"Just because you don't like him doesn't mean everyone else doesn't Ronald!" Hermione protested. The three got up to leave the hall to go back to the common room as they had a free period first thing.

When they were sat by the fire, Holly put her hands in her pockets as they were weirdly cold. Then she noticed a srunched up peice of paper. She unfolded it to see the words:

 _Meet me outside DADA room as soon as possible- Padfoot._

Holly checked the time- it had only been five minutes since first lesson started so hopefully by the time she got there, there wouldn't be anyone to see her talking to a dog.

"I need to go guys." She announced to the two others sat next to the fire.

"What! Why?" Hermione asked while furrowing her eyebrows.

"Might be going off to see Malfoy since they want to be best buds!" Ron sneered. Holly just rolled her eyes and threw the note at him before getting up and leaving.

She arrived at the arranged meeting point and kept her voice low so she wouldn't disturb any other classes.

"Padfoot. Where are you?" She whispered, looking for a black dog to emerge from one of the narrow shadowy corridors. Then she heard footsteps behind her so she slowly turned around to be met by not Sirius, but Professor Zorander!

It was dark. She couldn't see. It was just like when Draco had pulled her aside but this felt scarier. Holly didn't have her wand, she left it upstairs by accident. This left her completely defenceless.

"You know don't you?" Zorander whispered in her ear.

"Know what?" Holly asked even though she had a good idea of what he was on about.

"I think you know that aswell!"

"Sorry Professor but I have no clue what your on about!" Holly ininsisted.

"Well how about I give you some help!" As Zorander said this, his wand illuminated to show Padfoot, with his mouth and legs tied up. Holly widened her eyes in pure shock. Her feelings were right- he also knew!

"Sir this is your dog!" Holly said, trying her best not to run over and save her Godfather.

"Yes. That is what many people think but you and I both know that 'Padfoot' is different!" When the Professor said this, Holly gulped. She knew that Sirius was still very much wanted and even though she had done her very best to convince her defence against the dark arts Professor that he was indeed innocent- it may not have been enough!

He whipped his wand out and pointed it at the dog. Holly furrowed her brow, unsure of what she could do. She didn't even know what spell he would cast!

"I'm going to make your little dog friend transform because I have a feeling he's not meant to be here!" Zorander snarled. "Crucio!" Holly ran over to Sirius. He looked so in pain- she wanted to take all the pain from her Godfather.

"Stop! Please!" She whispered as that's all the breath she had.

"Who is it?" Zornader uttered, releasing Padfoot from the cruciatus curse.

"No!" Holly shouted.

"Move out the way!" The young Professor picked Holly up off the ground by her collar and threw her against the wall. Just before he could torture Sirius again, Holly mustered up the strength to jump infront of him.

A stab of pain filled her, it wouldn't go away- only get stronger! She could just about see the black dog beside her transform into her Godfather and kneel beside her. The pain just got worse. She couldn't hear what either of the men were saying and her vision was blurred from tears in her eyes! Suddenly, everything went away- someone, she wasn't sure who, had come up to Professor Zorander. Before Holly could figure out who it was, she had passed out!

It was bright. Holly squinted at the change in lighting. She felt like she couldn't move and her body ached all over! As her eyes ajusted to the light, she could see people rushing around her. Barely making out the muffled voices, she tried to sit upright but was bounded tightly to the bed!

"Holly! We're getting Madame Pomfrey. Just stay there for now!" Said Hermione, just about coming into focus. Holly felt awkward lying there while everyone else was rushing around to save her. She could see clearly now, Madame Pomfrey was walking up to her and loosened her bed covers so the girl could move again. Immediately, Holly sat upright.

"Take it easy!" Madame Pomfrey said cautiously as Holly pulled the covers back. She tried to stand up but her legs felt wobbly.

"Holly sit back down!" Ron shouted from next to the nurse's office.

"How long was I out for?" She asked, sitting back on the bed.

"Five days!" Hermione whispered, scared to tell Holly the truth. "What happened to you?" Holly didn't reply. She just mustered all the strength inside of her and got up. After taking a few steps, her legs began to feel right again and she began to run. She pulled her wand out of her robe pocket that had remained there since she had been knocked out.

"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT?!" Holly screamed at Professor Zorander who was teaching a group of second years. He looked confused which made Holly's bloodd boil more. "YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID!" She shouted. "OWN UP TO IT!" Her wand was now pointed at the defence against the dark arts Professor's face and he looked more than a little scared.

"Miss Potter! What do you think your doing?" Said a flustered Professor McGonagall who had just put down a clipboard at the back of the classroom.

"It was him!" A pained whisper escaped Holly as the strength left her body and her knees buckled, causing Professor McGonagall to catch her and escort her outside the classroom. A wave of scared muttering and giggling filled the classroom as their teacher had just been assulted by a fifth year!

"What happened?" McGonagall asked, fear painted all over her face.

"It was him! He put me in the hospital wing!" Holly whispered nervously, peering over the Professor's shoulder.

"How and why did he do that?" McGonagall asked, trying her best to remain calm.

"Cruciatus curse." Holly murmered- Professor McGonagall let out a small gasp. "It was meant for Sirius but I got in the way!" Holly was now on the verge of tears as she remembered Sirius being tortured for that short window of time!

"As in Black?" McGonagall asked, furrowing her brow. "When was he here?"

"He was staying with Zorander as Padfoot and..." Holly was cut off by the worried Professor.

"I think it is best if we talk about this in Professor Dumbledore's office!" She suggested, letting Holly take her arm for support.

The two made their way up to the headmaster's office. McGonagall said the password but Holly wasn't focused enough to remember what ut was. When they made their way up the stairs, Dumbledore was sat at his desk, reading a copy of the quibbler.

"Minerver? Holly? What do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore asked, setting the paper down.

"There are some serious matters that must be discussed Ablus!" McGonagall said rather calmly.

"I assume this has something to do with Miss Potter." Dumbledore said, turning his attention to Holly.

"It's Professor Zorander Sir! He knows about Sirius!" Holly blurted. "He found out that he was staying here as an animagus! Then he used the cruciatus curse against him and tried to do it again but I got in the way and he put me into the hospital wing!" Holly took a huge breath after saying all that in one breath.

"I didn't even know Sirius Black was in the school!" McGonagall added.

"Ah yes! Sirius Black was here!" Dumbledore said, pushing up his half moon specticals. "I shall get all of this sorted out. If anything is denied, we shall sadly have to ask for some veritiserum off Professor Snape! But thank you for your alert Miss Potter. It will be taken into consideration!" Dumbledore said, coolly and calmly. He put his arm around Holly's shoulders and guided her out the door. "Have the rest of the week off! We will ask you to tell us what happened in more detail when the time comes." He said before closing the door.

Holly was nervous to walk alone. She didn't want to encounter the defence against the dark arts Professor incase something happened again. This time there would most likely be no one to save her like there had been the previous time! Luckily, she made her way back up to the Griffindor tower unharmed! There was no one in there as they were all in lessons so Holly sat down by the fireplace.

 _Who saved me?_


	6. Help wanted

He walked into the great hall alone. He doubted anyone wanted to be associated with him- nevermind to be his friend! Draco sat alone. He looked over at all the people who he had once considered friends but now, not so much. An owl swooped down and placed a newspaper infront of him. The front page headline being 'The girl who lied!' This had been written before but just named in a different way! Not wanting to waste his time on the petty filth, he looked up and straight ahead of him, he saw Holly's unblinking eyes staring at him! She smiled over at him but he dismissed the kindness by looking at the other pages of the daily profet. Most of the pages were written by Rita Skita which indicated it was shit! This had been demonstrated to Draco when he was caught helping Fleur Delacor with her books after he walked into her in the corridor and she kissed his cheeks- a common French gesture. This however made it into the newspaper that Fleur had many guys going on at once since she had taken someone else to the Yule Ball just a week previously! When Draco looked up again, he saw a black dog sat next to Holly. This he knew was Sirius- since his mother had married into the Malfoy family from being a Black. This meant that she knew all about how her cousin had become an unregistered animagus! Just as the supposed dog left the hall with Professor Zorander, Snape sweapt through the doors. He shot a brief look at Draco before continuing on towards the teachers table. Draco collected his things up and quickly walked over to where Snape was going. On his way past the Griffindor table, he passed Holly- making sure to pass her the note he had been instructed to! Hopefully she wouldn't get into any trouble with this. Draco didn't really know why he had to give this to her. He just assumed it wouldn't be good...

The door in the back right corner of the Great Hall creaked open as Draco pushed against it. He saw Professor Snape and his father, Lucius, waiting for him!

"Ah! Draco, you are here!" Snarled Lucius as they made their way up the tall tower staircase.

"Not like I had much choice!" Draco muttered in response. A bolt of pain went through him as his father hit his stomach with the long cane he always carried.

"You do not disrespect the Dark Lord's choices Draco!" He said, shooting a death stare with unblinking eyes.

"Sorry father." He whispered before continuing up the stairs. At the top of the tower, was an owl.

"Do it!" Snarled Snape. Draco took his wand out and pointed it at the snowy owl. Then he remembered- this was Hedwig, Holly's owl!

"I can't." He sighed as he lowered his wand. He had seen how much Holly loved her owl, to kill it would be enforcing sadness onto her. No matter how much he had bullied her over the past few years, he didn't truly want that!

"Why not?" Asked Lucius, furrowing his brow.

"It never did anything!" Draco responded- not telling them the whole truth.

"Well do you think that the person you've been demanded to kill has done anything wrong?" Asked Snape, wrapping his cloak over his chest and crossing his arms. Draco didn't respond. He knew that when it came to it, he would have to do it! Nothing would be there to save him!

"You have to take this seriously Draco! Once you turn sixteen, everything will change! If you can't kill an owl then what are you going to do later on?" Lucius spat. He then walked over to the staircase and made his way down it, Snape following close after.

Draco broke down. Why had he been asked to do this? It wasn't fair- he was only fifteen! Tears streamed down his pale face as he wrote a note in shaky handwriting.

 _I'm sorry Holly!_

He sent the bird off. If Holly had found the note, it wouldn't get to her until the evening when she was back in the common room. Thinking about what could be happening to Holly, Draco decided to go to just outside the defence against the dark arts room instead of the Slytherin common room.

As he reached the corridor, he could hear screams. _Why is there no one helping?_ Draco began to run towards the screams and as he did, he could just about hear someone begging.

"Please! Stop! Why are you doing this to her?" It was a farmiliar voice. Draco made his way to the end of the hallway and saw three people in a dimly lit corridor. One of them was Professor Zorander who was using some sort of magic, the next was wanted murderer- Sirius Black. The third would have been unrecognisable to anyone who hadn't seen her in person. This was because the girl was on the floor, curled in a ball with clenched fists and gritted teeth.

"Holly!" he whispered under his breath.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco shouted and Zorander's wand went flying out of his hand. "Petrificus totalus!" The Professor froze and fell to the floor.

"What's going on here?" Draco said, a small feeling of fear flooding through him as he was face to face with the infamous Sirius Black!

"Take her to the hospital wing! I need to get out of here before he wakes up!" Sirius said, almost crying. "Please!" Draco knew that this man was her Godfather but that didn't stop him from murderering twelve muggles at once after selling the Potters to Lord Voldemort! However, Draco didn't want Holly to die since then he himself would be a murderer! Draco scooped the tiny girl up in his arms. He could feel her ribcage through her robes as be carried her away.

Luckily, the hospital wing wasn't too far away and Draco got her there with no interruptions.

"Oh my god!" Madame Pomfrey screamed when she saw Holly's body barely breathing in Draco's arms. "Did you do this?" She asked, deeply concerned.

"No! But I don't know what happened!" Draco replied, setting Holly down on a hospital bed.

"Can you get Professor Dumbledore for me? The password is honeycomb!"

Draco turned on his heels and started to run towards the headmaster's office.

"Honeycomb!" He shouted at the gargoyle and the staircase began to rise. He had jumped into the first room of his office before the staircase had reached the top. Draco burst through the door to where Dumbledore was sitting.

"Mr Malfoy! How did you get in?" He asked calmly.

"It's Potter! She's nearly dead!" He said, not entirely sure if this was true. Dumbledore rose from his chair.

"Ok why don't you go back to your common room. I shall go and check on Miss Potter!" He said, patting Malfoy's shoulder. Draco followed the elderly headmaster down the stairs then they parted ways, Draco heading towards the dungeons and Dumbledore going to the hospital wing.

All day, Draco sat through his lessons worried. He wasn't sure why! This was Potter after all! The Potter who he had bullied for four years, the Potter who his parents hated, the Potter who was on the other side, the Potter he wanted to be friends with, the Potter he... Draco cut himself off. He would not be friends with Potter. He couldn't! Even if he wanted to, he would be killed for it. When lessons were over, he heard Weaslebee and the Mudblood talking about where Holly had been.

"Hospital wing." He whispered to Granger before walking off, trying not to be acknowledged.

"What did he just say?" Asked Ron as Hermione's face went white as paper.

"He said hospital wing..." Hermione whispered in response. The two shared a scared look before bolting away.

The two arrived in the hospital wing and were greeted by Madame Pomfrey who was checking Holly's pulse.

"Oh my god!" Hermione gasped.

"What happened?" Ron asked, walking over to his best friend who was colourless and frail, her eyes still red rimmed and her robes dusty like she had been rolled along the floor.

"We don't know. Mr Malfoy bought her in but didn't tell me what had happened!" Madame Pomfrey said. Hermione's face lit up as she heard that the person she convinced Holly to be friends with had just potentially saved her life!

"Did he do this?" Ron asked, fists clenching.

"No. I asked him that since I know they were never very good friends. He said no and seemed really worried. It didn't look like he was lying!" The nurse told them. The two fifth years sat down next to Holly. They were worried for her and they had never seen the girl so frail. Even though she had been in the hospital wing too many times to count, she looked really bad this time. Almost as if whatever had happened had sucked all the joy out of her.

"You don't reckon this was a dementor attack do you?" Hermione asked Ron, breaking the silence.

"Where would a dementor have come from?" Ron asked back. The room fell into silence again.

After a few hours of trying to figure out what had done this to Holly, Ron and Hermione left to go and get somr dinner. The days were getting shorter and the sun had already begun to set- this year earlier than usual!

As everyone else was sat in the Great Hall, most oblivious to what had happened, Draco made his way to the hospital wing. He wanted to go visit Holly but he didn't want anyone else knowing. Just as he was about to get there, he saw Ron and Hermione walk out. It was too late to hide from them as they had spotted him.

"Thanks." Hermione said with a small smile.

"You did us a favor their Malfoy!" Ron added, greatful that he was willing to help Holly out when she needed it. Draco didn't say anything back. He wasn't sure what to say- no one had ever had the opportunity to say thank you as he never did anything for anyone else!

He walked into the hospital wing. There was no one there as Madame Pomfrey had presumably gone to get dinner with the rest of the school. Draco went and sat by Holly's bed, wonderingwhat had happened to her. A twang of guilt passed through him as he realised that two death eaters had been in the school as Holly had been attacked. It had to have been something to do with them.

The next five days, Draco ate nothing at dinner as he was in the hospital wing visiting Holly. He wasn't sure why he cared so much but decided to blame it on the fact that he was the one who caused it. After all he had given her the note- even if it was an order! On the fifth evening, he went to go see Holly, but she was no longer there! A sigh of relief escaped Draco as he knew she was alive- whatever it was, it would take more to kill her. She had survived the killing curse as a baby!

Draco began to panic when, for the next few days, he saw Holly nowhere. He was half tempted to ask Weaslebee and the Mudblood where she was, but decided against it when he thought that if it got back to anyone that he cared about Potter, then Snape could find out and then all the death eaters! That was a bad idea considering he had not yet proved himself to the Dark Lord.

That weekend, there was a Hogsmede trip as the village had just reopened. Draco knew why it had shut down but no one else did- it was because his father had turned up in his death eater clothes and been spotted. No one knew it was him though- at least no one turned him in to the Ministry! Draco hoped that this would be enough to convince the whitnesses that Voldemort had indeed returned- this was the one thing him and Potter agreed on! To his delight, Holly was there, safe. Draco had saved her life in a way and he wanted her to make it! She still looked frail from the attack but overall, alot better than she had done over the past few days when she had been unconscious.

The two made eye contact very briefly and Holly began to walk up to Draco. Her eyes lit up the smallest amount when Draco let a tiny smile form on his lips. He was expecting a thank you for saving her life or a punch for just being Draco Malfoy but, shockingly, Holly hugged him. Draco had never really been exposed to this level off affection so he wasn't sure what to do!

"Thank you!" Holly whispered nervously before walking away.

"Holly!" Draco called, not realising that he had refered to her by her first name. "Thank you for coming back!" Holly gave a relieved laugh as she saw he genuinely cared- Maybe they would make good friends...


	7. The trials

The whole Hogsmede trip, both Draco and Holly thought about the hug. When Holly had returned to Ron and Hermione, both were staring at her as if she had turned into a hippogriff!

"What?!" She exclaimed.

"You!" Hermione replied.

"What about me?"

"You hugged fucking Malfoy!" Ron said rolling his eyes.

"Well excuse me for being kind to the person who saved my life!" Holly said, raising an eyebrow at Ron.

"You don't know he did that!" Ron muttered. "He could have just asked the Professor to do it and then pretended to save you!"

"And Professor Zorander would go through with this because?..." Hermione asked, waiting for a response.

"I don't know!" Ron said and the three fell into silence.

"Why don't we go to the three broomsticks?" Holly suggested, breaking the awkwardness.

"Yeah! That's what we need. A little butterbeer to cheer us all up!" Hermione said optimistically.

The three walked into the pub and took a seat. They all ordered a butterbeer and began to sip on it.

"Holly, what really happened?" Hermione asked after a few seconds of quiet.

"We know you've told us briefly but what's the full story?" Ron added.

"Well you know I got that note from Padfoot, I don't really know who it was from but when I got to outside defence against the dark arts, Zorander pulled me into a dark corridor and he had Padfoot tied up! Then he asked me who he really was and when I wouldn't tell him he used the cruciatus curse on him. He then tried to do it again but I may or may not have got in the way!" Holly explained.

"Why didn't you use the sheilding spell?" Hermione asked, placing her drink onto the table with a bit of a loud slam.

"Because maybe not everyone is a walking encyclopedia of spells!" Ron joked as Holly almost spat out the small amout of butterbeer she had just drunk from laughing.

"Well for future reference, use protago! It works against most spells and is very useful!" Hermione said, emphasising the words 'very useful'.

"Well anyway, then Padfoot transformed and that just caused him to torture me more and then, I couldn't really see at the time but looking back on it, I know it was Draco who saved me. But by the time he had done anything, I passed out and didn't wake up for five days!" Holly finished off. Ron and Hermione sat in silence, blinking at Holly who seemed very unphased by this.

"They have got to arrest him!" Ron said eventually. "He belongs in Azkaban for that!"

"Dumbledore said that I would have to tell him exactly what happened at some point. So maybe when I do everything will sort itself out!" Holly suggested with optimism in her voice.

The rest of the trip went smoothly. Holly saw Draco come into the three broomsticks alone just as she was about to leave. She felt sorry for the boy as he never seemed to be around anyone anymore! Holly was tempted to leave Ron and Hermione and go sit with Draco but then Ron would get upset again and probably go in a mood!

The next day at breakfast, Holly got two letters, one from Sirius and one from the Ministry of Magic.

 _Holly I just wanted to say sorry for not doing anything the other week when you were attacked! I didn't have my wand on me since I had been a dog at the time and I shouldn't have trusted the new Professor since they all end up being evil in some way or another- apart from Moony! He is a warewolf but that's not a conscious decision to become a wolf on each full moon! Everyone else had tried to kill you or attack you if I recall correctly. Anyway Dumbledore wrote to me and I told him everything I knew! I'm really glad your back. You scared me for a while!_

 _Padfoot_

Holly's heart warmed- Sirius was alright! Zorander hadn't sold him over to the Ministry! However, on that train of thought, Holly became anxious to open the next letter.

 _Miss H. Potter,_ _It has come to our attention that last week, at 9.21am you were attacked by the cruciatus curse, being performed by Professor E. Zorander. Professor A. Dumbledore has requested that you have a hearing tomorrow at 12.00pm sharp so we can debate what the proper punishment should be. He will discuss matters with you at some point between now and then._

 _Kind regards,_

 _Mrs M. Hopkirk_

Holly felt her stomach drop. She would have to go to a hearing and for the first time since the attack, have to be in the same room as that man without being armed! She looked over to Professor Dumbledore who gave a supportive smile to the anxious girl. _Why is it always me that's attacked?_

The next day rolled around in a flash. She had recived an owl from the headmaster to meet him in his office as soon as the second lesson started.

"Honeycomb." Holly said, checking the correct password on the letter Dumbledore had sent her. The staircase began to appear and Holly walked up the stairs. Dumbledore was waiting at his desk, once again reading the quibbler.

"Miss Potter!" Dumbledore said calmly- sensing the girls nervousness. "We will be leaving now to ensure that you get there on time. Do you have any questions?" Holly thought for a moment.

"What do I need to do?" Holly asked eventually.

"When they ask for it, just tell them your side of the story!" Dumbledore said simply. "We will be apparating so if you could be so kind as to take my arm!"

"But I thought you couldn't apparate within the Hogwarts grounds!" Holly said furrowing her brow.

"Well when your me, you get small perks like that!" Dumbledore said with a small wink. Holly took his arm and before she knew it, she felt as if she were being bended around!

The two arrived outside a red phone box on a deserted street.

"In here!" Dumbledore said, gesturing to the small phone box. Holly walked in, Dumbledore going in after. He pressed in the password: 62442. Then, the booth began to sink into the floor. It was an odd sensation but not as strange as apparating!

The large, black, marble entrance was empty as everyone would have been in their offices, impatiently waiting for the lunch break. Dumbledore lead Holly through the Ministry, almost as if he knew exactly where to go like it was perfectly engraved into his memory! They reached the hearing rooms at 11:59 and there was a middle aged, toad-like looking witch wearing bright pink from head to toe waiting outside.

"Miss Potter!" She said while pushing the door open. "If you would like to enter the court room." Holly nervously made her way into the large room and saw many people looking down at her. She took the seat in the centre of the room and looked to the people just above the door she had come through. Professor Zorander was there and sat next to him, surprisingly was Draco.

"Miss H. Potter. Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Hearing been called for an attack by Professor E. Zorander." Called the Minister of Magic himself. "Would you mind telling us what happened?"

Holly explained everything. About how she had been passed a note by someone- she almost backed herself into a corner when she nearly mentioned Sirius but managed to get herself out of it by not being specific. Then she said what Zorander had done to both her and her Godfather before finally saying that Draco had saved her. When she said this, a long blond haired man jolted his head to where Draco was sat. _Oh fuck! Now I've got him in trouble!_

"If Professor E. Zorander will please come forth and plead his case." The Minister said while taking a few notes.

Holly's blood boiled as she heard Zorander's claims.

"Honestly I was under the influence of the imperious curse!" He pleaded. "I would never hurt anyone intentionally!" He carried on with this huge thing about how nothing he did was himself- merely the actions of someone else working through him!

"Now will the witness please come forth and tell us what they believed happened." Draco stood up, Holly could see from the other side of the room that he was shaking. After all, his father- who was a death eater- was sat in the room and Draco was about to rave about how he helped Holly Potter, the girl Voldemort wants to kill!

Draco told the Minster everything he knew about the attack. He left out the part about Sirius being there and Holly assumed that Zorander just forgot about him as he was too focused on his sob story. The Minister looked like he was about to say something after Draco had finished speaking but Dumbledore cut him off before he had even started.

"I have one last witness! He was also a victim in the crime." A shot of fear stabbed through Holly as Sirius walked through the doors. Screams flooded the room and everyone pointed their wands at the 'murderer'. If Holly still had hers and hadn't had to give it in, she would have used expelliarmus on each and every one of them just to protect her Godfather!

"No! Stop!" She yelled, unable to do anything else. The whole room fell silent.

"Miss Potter you are aware this is the only man eho has ever escaped Azkaban and he was put in there for mass murder!" Snarled the toad like lady in pink who was cowering in a corner.

"He was framed! He's innocent!" Holly announced to the whole room. "And he's my Godfather!" Gasps filled the court as Holly said this.

"And where is your evidence?" Asked the Minster, slightly ducked down so he could escape any spells cast at him.

"Use veritiserum for all I care!" Holly shouted. "I will tell you the exact same story!"

"Minister, I willingly put myself forward for a trial using veritiserum!" Sirius announced, making himself known to the room.

"Please do it!" Holly begged. The thing she currently wanted most in the world was for her Godfather to be able to walk around freely!

"Why should we trial him?" Cornelius asked, snapping his fingers and getting Sirius in handcuffs.

"Because he's innocent! It was Pettigrew!" Holly said, finally calming down a little bit.

"Pettigrew is dead!"

"No he isn't!" Holly snapped back. "Give him a trial! You didn't do it last time for no reason but out of fear!"

"Well for now he can go back to Azkaban. We will have his trial as soon as possible!" Fudge unwillingly agreed to as he was slightly scared of the fifteen year old shouting at him!

Holly jumped over the barrier infront of her and ran over to Sirius, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. _Why does he have to go back to Azkaban? It's not fair!_

"Not to be disrespectful Minister, but Sirius Black was still a witness to the current crime being trialed." Said Dumbledore in a calm voice. "And since you believe in him enough to give him a trial 14 years after the crime was committed, I trust you should let him give a statement!" Holly had always found the Headmaster to be very convincing with his words and apparently so did Cornelius.

"Very well then!" He said, pointing for Sirius to sit on the chair.

"I was staying at Hogwarts in my animagus form when the incident happened." Holly's eyes widened- he was giving himself away! _Does he not remember that being an unregistered animagus is a crime?_ "I went there so I could be closer to my Goddaughter, Holly Potter, and I was staying with the young Professor Zorander! One day, he took me into a dark corridor and tied me up. Around 10 minutes later, Holly came and he began to interrogate her about me. Zorander then proceeded to use the cruciatus curse agaisnt me to try and get me to transform but when I didn't, he stopped. When he tried again, Holly jumped in the way to save me. He seemed to have no desire of stopping and soon after, Draco Malfoy came and took her to the hospital wing." Sirius said in a completely cool and calm manor.

"And this is all you know?" Asked the Minster.

"Yes it is Minister!" Sirius said.

The Minister turned towards the two people on either side of him and consulted them.

"We have come to the agreement that veritiserum is required. If the attacker proves guilty, he will be sent to Azkaban. If not then we shall have to investigate farther." Just as Fudge said this, someome came in the room, holding two viles of clear liquid. "We can also hold Black's trial now!" He added and Holly sighed in relief- _Sirius isn't going back to Azkaban!_

The Professor downed the potion and was then interrogated.

"Did you attack Sirius Black and Holly Potter?"

"Yes."

"Did you do it with the cruciatus curse?"

"Yes."

"Were you under the influence of the imperious curse?"

"Yes."

"Do you know who cast the imperious curse on you?"

"No."

"Is there any other information you wish to tell us about the incident?"

"No."

"That will be all! He may have time off work until the effects have worn off! Now, Black!" The Minister snapped his fingers again and the two men swapped seats. Sirius was handed the vile of potion and he drunk it, placing the bottle down back on the tray.

"Are you a death eater?"

"No."

"Were you the one who told you- know- who where the Potters lived?"

"No."

"Do you know who it was?"

"Peter Pettigrew! He lived with the Weasley family up until 1984 which is when he ran away and went to serve Voldemort!" Fudge flinched when Sirius said Voldemort's name.

"Are you innocent?"

"Yes."

"All charges have been dismissed from your case. Do you know where we can find Pettigrew?"

"No."

"As for the recent attack, we shall have to investigate at Hogwarts! CASE CLOSED!" The Minister whacked the small mallet on the desk and from that moment forward, Sirius was free! Before he could even stand up, Holly had gone and hugged him.

"Your free!" She whispered, trying not to cry. "You can go outside!"

"I don't recommend that!" Dumbledore said, walking up behind the pair. "Everyone in this room knows your innocent but the ret of the wizarding world not so much. I suggest waiting until it's in the daily profit! Now you've missed enough lessons as it is Miss Potter- I think it best if you come back to school. I'm sure Mr Black can find his own way home."

Dumbledore glided out of the room, Holly and Draco following him. She waved goodbye to Sirius one last time, with the biggest smile ever on her face, before disappearing around the corner.

Dumbledore held out his arm for both fifteen year olds to take. Once all of them were ready, they apparated back into Hogwarts in the exact same position as they left. Almost as if they had never left at all! Holly glanced at the clock- it was 1.30pm. They had definitely been out!

"If you two would like to return to your lesson- that would be greatly appreciated." Dumbledore said calmly. _How is he so calm after apparating? I feel like I'm going to fall over!_

"Yes Professor." Draco said before turning and walking out, grabbing Holly's arm so she would leave too.

"What do we have now?" She asked, Draco not even turning towards her.

"Potions." His voice was cold and he had put all his barriers up. Holly knew this wasn't the Draco who wanted to be her friend, this wasn't the Draco who saved her, this wasn't the Draco who defended her in court.

"What's wrong?" Holly asked, not wanting to intrude too much.

"I JUST RISKED EVERYTHING FOR YOU! MY FATHER WAS IN THAT COURT ROOM AND HE'S A DEATH EATER! WHAT SHIT DO YOU THINK I'M GONNA GET TOMORROW! OH WOW YOU GOT YOUR FAMILY BACK! BUT FOR ME I JUST LOST EVERYTHING! VOLDEMORT WILL PROBABLY KILL ME NOW!" Draco snapped. Holly wanted to cry- not only because she was scared of the sudden outburst, but because she felt sorry for him!

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happen!" Holly wishpered, fighting back tears.

"Well neither did I!" Draco walked off without waiting for a response. He didn't go towards the potions classroom however, he went to the Slytherin common room. Holly felt guilt wash over her. She began to make her way over to the potions room when she had a better idea.

Holly turned on her heels and headed for the Slytherin common room. Just as she cane to the bottom of the stairs, she saw Draco talking to the wall.

"Dura vita." He said and the wall opened up- almost like the on connecting the leaky cauldron to Diagon Alley. Once the wall had reclosed, Holly approched it.

"Dura vita!" She whispered, the bricks moved to reveal a door, it looked as if it would be creaky but surprisingly, it didn't make a sound!

The common rooms were the same as they had been three years ago when Holly and Ron had disguised themselves as Draco's friends to get more information on the chamber of secrets. She couldn't see the signature platinum blond hair of Draco so she ventured farther into the room and found herself in the boy's dormitory.

As she rounded the corner, she heard soft sobs. Holly tracked them down to the door at the end of the corridor.

"Draco?" She asked as she opened the wooden door. Draco jolted his head up- his eyes were red-rimmed and puffy and his cheeks along with his hands were wet with tears!

"What the fuck are you doing here?" He snapped, rapidly trying to wipe his gray eyes from tears.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to intrude. I just..."

"Well if you didn't mean to then why are you here? Your a Griffindor for fucks sake!" Draco snarled, putting Holly on edge.

"I just didn't want to make life hard for you!" Holly said. Draco took a step closer to her.

"There is no way my life can be easy!" A pained whisper escaped him.

"But if you just..." Holly was cut off. Not by words- by actions. She nearly fell over as Draco pushed her violently at the wall. It hurt her head but all the pain went away once Draco began to kiss her...


	8. Goodbye

Holly couldn't breath. She hadn't anticipated Malfoy to kiss her! Unsure of what to do, she pushed him away! Just as she did that, she almost felt a longing sensation for his touch!

"Sorry." Draco said, turning as red as a post box! Holly wasn't quite sure how to respond. Luckily, she was saved by footsteps coming down the corridor. Wait! There was someone coming!

Without even having to think, Holly whipped her invisibility cloak out from her bag and draped it over her body. Draco's mouth dropped open as she disappeared into thin air.

"Oi! Malfoy! Where've you been?" Shouted Crabbe as he came into the room.

"Out!" He said briefly. Holly could tell that he had drifted apart from his fellow Slytherins as before, she felt like he would have told them everything! But now- nothing.

"Where?" He asked, trying to break Draco's outer shell.

"Nowhere interesting!" He insisted, showing on his face that he wanted to be left alone.

"But where? You never know who finds what interesting!"

"Just shut the fuck up and leave me alone! Can you not take a hint? Or are you really just that stupid?" Draco snapped, clenching his fists. Holly flinched and knocked over a small vase on a low shelf. The two boys in the room whipped their heads around, a face of fear from Draco and confusion from Crabbe! The plump boy walked towards Holly and she held her breath, trying not to make a sound. He was close enough to feel his breath ripple the cloth of the invisibility cloak on Holly's face. Just as he was about to touch Holly, Crabbe shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

"Potter?" Draco whispered once the door was closed. "Where are you?" Holly whipped the cloak off and began to regain her breath. She couldn't look at Draco as she still felt awkward after the kiss.

"Sorry!" She said before pulling the cloak back on and running out of the room. There was no point in going to her last lesson as it was defence against the dark arts so they wouldn't have a Professor! Holly daren't look back as if she did, she would probably see Draco's hurt face which would fill Holly with guilt!

Back at the Griffindor common room, Holly sat by the fire. She thought back to how she had pushed Draco too far, how she physically pushed him away and how shit Draco must feel. Holly just wanted to curl up in a ball and die! Just as she was about to jump into the flames of the fireplace, McGonagall walked in. Holly scrambled to get her invisibility cloak, as she was meant to be in lesson, but was too late.

"Miss Potter, Dumbledore would like to see you. He thought you'd be up here!" She said while beckoning for Holly to join her.

"What does he want?" Holly asked as she made her way to the headmaster's office with McGonagall.

"I don't know. But he says that it is urgent!" She responded, sighing. When the reached Dumbledore, he was sat in his usual place, with his usual sherbet lemons and the quibbler once again in his hands.

"Thank you Minerver!" Dumbledore nodded at McGonagall and she exited the room.

"What did you want Professor?" Holly asked when the transfiguration Professor had left the room.

"I wanted to tell you something- it's very important you don't tell anyone else- at least not for now!" Dumbledore said with a raised eyebrow.

"I promise?" Holly said, unsure and a little scared of what she would be told.

"Earlier, in the ministry, I managed to get a hold of this!" Dumbledore held out a beautiful locket. "I need you to take care of this until you can destroy it! This is a very important peice of magic that will, in the end destroy Voldemort!" Holly's mouth dropped open with shock and confusion.

"So I have to break a pretty necklace to kill Voldemort?" Holly asked, frowning at her Professor.

"It's not quite that simple! You see this holds a small piece of the Dark Lords soul! If you destroy it then you destroy the bit of soul living in it. It's called a horcrux. Voldemort has 7 in total! You will need to destroy all of these as soon as possible!" Holly could feel the fear growing inside of her. _Has this old man finally gone insane? I've been questioning it for a while now but now I'm certain!_

"I will help you to start but at some point you will be on your own. There will always be help from others around you though! For help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it!" Dumbledore grinned. _What is this man on? Can I have some?_

Holly took the locket from Dumbledore's hand and exited the office. She flipped it between her hands before putting it on and tucking it into her robes and heading back to the common room. The last lesson had ended and everyone was in the firelit room. Holly didn't feel like talking to anyone so she slipped past them and ran up to her dorm room.

She lay down on her bed, thinking back to what she had done that day: Freed a innocent man; proved her attacker was not in control of his actions, found out about horcruxes and kissed Draco Malfoy. The last thing lingered in her head for a while. _I didn't kiss him back so it doesn't count! He kissed me and I pushed him away! There is no way I actually like him! He's vile!_

Holly's train of thoughts were cut off by Hermione coming in!

"Are you ok?" She asked, cation in her voice.

"Yeah I'm fine." Holly replied, twiddling her thumbs.

"Your not though!" Hermione said coming to sit on the end of Holly's bed.

"Yeah I am!" Holly insisted, sitting up and crossing her legs.

"Please tell me. I don't want something to be bothering you loads!"

"I SAID I'M FINE!" Holly shouted. As she did, her hand striked agaisnt Hermione's face, leaving a red mark.

"I... I... I'm..." Holly bought her hands to her mouth as she realised what she had just done. Tears welled in Hermione's eyes as she carressed her slap mark with her hand. Holly couldn't form words so she just ran, grabbing the invisibility cloak as she got off her bed. When she passed everyone in the common room, she attracted alot of attention but chose to ignore it.

Holly had managed to find a quiet place in the castle. She leaned against the wall and slowly slid down it, sobbing into her hands. To avoid further attention, she hid under the invisibility cloak. Holly wasn't sure how long she was sat there for, but she did know that it must have been quite a while since she had seen Ron and Hermione pass through the corridor about three times! When she had calmed down a bit, Holly burried her head in her lap, zoning out of everything going on in the rest of the castle.

A breeze came over her and she looked up to see Luna looking down at her.

"Holly? What are you doing?" She asked in her calming voice. She stepped back when Holly tried to grab the cloak back so she only just couldn't reach it!

"How did you find me?" Holly whispered, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Racksperts! Your head is full of them!" Luna said, holding a hand out for Holly to help her up.

"Anyway you didn't answer my question! What are you doing?" Her voice didn't change levels, it was rather monotoned but Holly found it quite calming.

"I just wanted to get away from everyone!" Holly said cautiously. She didn't want the whole school to know that she had slapped Hermione in the face for no reason!

"Does this have anything to do with Hermione?" Luna asked inninnocently. _Guess I'm too late!_

"Yeah. Did she tell you what I did?"

"She did. You know, violence is never the answer! When you see her, just talk it out. It will make you feel much better!" Holly didn't realise the pair had been slowly walking until they physically bumpef into Ron and Hermione.

"Holly! Where were you?" Hermione said, throwing her arms around the tiny girl.

"Why did you run off?" Ron asked, hands in his pockets.

"I didn't mean to! I just... I don't know what happened to me!" Holly said, hugging Hermione a bit tighter before letting go.

"I'm not angry at you Holly. You've been through alot this week! I shouldn't have pushed you on it!" Hermione said, looking into Holly's emerald eyes that looked red and puffy from where she had had an emotional breakdown!

"But I hit you! You looked like you were going to cry!" Holly protested, tilting Hermione's face to the side to reveal a completely normal coloured cheek.

"It just scared me! I'm fine. Honestly!" Hermione said, reaching for Holly's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze! Holly didn't respond. There was silence until Ron spoke.

"Holly you haven't eaten! There's still fifteen minutes left of dinner, you need to get something!"

"I'm fine Ron!" Holly lied, she didn't want to be awkward and make everyone go with her but she also didn't want to go alone!

"Holly! Don't argue with us on this! You still look like your wasting away!" Hermione said with a small pout.

"Fine!" Holly knew it was useless fighting them on this so she reluctantly agreed.

The three sat in the Great Hall. Holly had a small plate if food infront of her and the others just sat talking. Stupidly, she had let the other two serve her so she ended up with mountains of food. She finished around half of it before she was full. She put her fork down and looked up to see Draco slip through the door, closely followed by Snape. This was the second time he had been in there recently- it was starting to become suspicious!

"You done?" Hermione asked with a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah lets go!" Holly said, rising from the table and climbing over the bench. They all walked out of the Hall and back to the Griffindor common room, Ron and Hermione talking and Holly just staying in silence.

The next day, everyone walked into defence against the dark arts to see a new Professor stood at the front. Everyone assumed it was another supply and they all took their seats, not being quiet to hear what she had to say.

"Ahem!" She said and no one listened. She clapped a little tune, like you would do with a group of small children and no one did anything. She just counted the students in the class and wrote down four numbers- one next to 'Griffindor', 'Slytherin', 'Ravenclaw' and 'Hufflepuff'.

"Oi lady! What's that?" Called Seamus from the back of the class. She rubbed off Griffindor's number and added one more to it.

"That is the amount each house will lose for disrespecting their Professor!" She squeaked, with an evil smile. The whole class went silent. A small whisper drifted across the room.

"Silence!" She snapped and everyone stopped talking. "I am your new defense against the dark arts Professor. I will be replacing your old one who you had earlier this year!"

"What happened to Zorander?" Asked a random Slytherin in the front row.

"Professor Zorander has been temporarily excused from teaching here due to recent events that I'm sure Miss Potter here knows about!" The whole class turned to look at Holly and she burned red.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't tell that to the entire class!" Holly said through gritted teeth.

"What? Tell them why you were in court the other day! I wouldn't dream of it!" She giggled. A wave of whispers filled the class once again as Holly clenched her fists.

"Yes! Exactly that!" She said, clenching her jaw.

"I would have thought that brave, strong, centre of attention Potter would tell everyone how she survived the cruciatus curse!" She announced to the whole room. Holly stood up, flinging her chair backwards so it fell over.

"You say one more fucking word!" Holly said in kind of a loud whisper.

"Or how Draco Malfoy came to rescue you!" She said, pushing Holly over the edge.

"Stupefy!" She shouted. The oldish lady crumpled to the floor, the hem on her bright pink jacket ripping as she fell. Holly's breath was heavy and she turned to face the class.

"That's how you use defensive spells!" She shouted at them before storming out the class. To her surprise, Professor McGonagall was rounding the corner as she left.

"Miss Potter! Why are you leaving your lesson? And Mr Weasley, Miss Granger!" Holly turned around to see Ron and Hermione in the doorway.

"Well... I..." Holly stuttered.

"We were all told to go and get something by the new Professor!" Hermione saved the trio from detention and Holly from possible expulsion.

"Yeah. We just went to get textbooks for her! The lesson is great! Teacher is great! Everything is great!" Ron said, approaching McGonagall and turning her around so she was walking away from the classroom.

"Then why is everyone cheering?" She asked, shaking Ron off her shoulders.

"They're not!" Hermione insisted, closing the door so the sound was slightly muffled.

"You three are terrible liars!" Said McGonagall, making her way towards the classroom. The three all shared a joint look of 'run now or face 50 years of detention!' Before Professor McGonagall could even comprehend what had happened, Holly, Ron and Hermione had escaped under the invisibility cloak and heading outside.

The quidditch pitch was full of first years learning to fly so the trio knew they would have to stay away from there. They scanned the field.

"The astronomy tower!" Hermione whispered. The three headed towards the small door which lead to a secret passageway to the staircase of the astronomy tower! They whipped the cloak off as they were getting too big to fit under it comfortably! All of them jogged up the stairs laughing slightly.

As they reached the top, they heard voices. They were muffled by so none of them could really tell who it was or what they were saying. Holly pulled the invisibility cloak back on and made her way up the stairs to see three people- Dumbledore, Snape and Draco. Holly had only just realised that no one apart from her had protested about the trials being shared with the school, so Malfoy must have just not been there! Holly took a few steps more so she was stood next to Snape. No one was saying anything which confused Holly but she stayed as she had to know what was going on. In one movement, Draco whisked his wand out and pointed it at Dumbledore.

"I'm sorry!" He whispered, voice breaking as if he were fighting back tears. "Expelliarmus!" Dumbledore went flying backwards through the air and off the astronomy tower.

"NO!" Holly screamed, revealing herself from under the invisibility cloak. She ran to the end of the tower before two pairs of arms grabbed her and stopped her from jumping after the beloved headmaster. People were shouting around her but she couldn't hear a thing they were saying. One of the few people who actually cared about her was gone! When she finally stopped fighting, Holly's knees buckled and she collapsed on the floor, screaming and crying at Dumbledore's death.

A searing pain rushed through the lighting bolt scar on her forehead. She clutched it and lay down. People were rushing around her but she couldn't get up. Eventually, Holly was picked up and carried down the stairs, her vision still blurry. That was the last thing she remembered from that day!

"It has come to your recent attention that Professor Dumbledore has sadly passed away!" Snarled Snape as he glided towards the front of the hall in an unscheduled assembly. "From now on, I will be your headmaster and Professor McGonagall shall still be assistant head." Holly felt rage boiling inside of her. _'Sadly passed away'?! He was murdered!_ Holly paid no attention to the rest of the announcements as she was too preoccupied with being so angry!

"We will all deeply miss Professor Dumbledore. His death was a tragic accident." Snape added to the end of his speach.

"No it wasn't!" Holly whispered so the people around her could hear. "It wasn't an accident! Was it? You were there! You did nothing to stop it. I wouldn't be surprised if it was you who made him do it!" Holly's voice was slowly rising. _How dare he stand here and lie to everyone? He should tell them the truth- he did nothing to stop Draco!_ "You let Dumbledore die! He didn't have to die!"

"Yes he did!" Snape snapped and the whole room went silent. "The Dark Lord demanded it!"

"The Dark Lord has not returned! This is all fake! Professor Dumbledore's death was a tragic accident as well as Cedric Diggory's!" The lady in pink uttered. "I am the head of department in the Ministry of Magic. And I- Professor Umbridge- will make sure this lie speads no further!"

"It's not a lie! I saw both die! One at the hands of Voldemort and another at the hands if a student, most likely stood in this very hall!" Whispers spread across the hall faster than a raging fire would!

"Miss Potter! You must stop trying to play the hero with your make believe stories!" Umbridge snarled.

"This is not make believe you daft toad!" Snape shouted.

"She even has the Professor she hates the most corrupted!"

"No I don't!" Holly said. "I hate you the most!" After that she walked towards the large doors at the back of the hall- knocking anyone in her way over. She flung both doors open, so a huge draft filled the silent hall, and walked off.

Holly reached the Griffindor common room and grabbed her trunk. She opened all the drawers and stuffed all her clothes from them into her trunk. She could hear footsteps running up the cold stone floor- it would be Hermione telling her to stop whatever she was doing. Holly actively ignored her as she approched the door.

"Holly?" She whispered, slowly walking over to the girl sat on the floor packing all her things. "Please don't say your running away!"

"What does it look like?" Holly snapped, looking over her shoulder. "Ginny? I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you!" Ginny stared back at her, fear forming in her eyes. "I didn't mean to scare you..."

"You didn't. I just don't think this school can manage without you!" She whispered, sitting on the end of Holly's bed. Holly stopped packing and sat beside the red head, who was usually so brave and fearless- and comforted her. She knew Ginny was scared, just to afraid to show it!

"There's no talking you out of this is there?" Ginny whispered, looking up to Holly's usually vibrant eyes which were now a dull shade of merky green. Holly couldn't bring herself to tell the girl no so she just broke the eye contact.

"Profunda vorago." She said and pointed her wand at Holly's backpack. "Now you have an infinite amount of room for anything you want! If I can't stop you then I may as well help you!" Ginny whispered, trying to fight back tears but failing as she let a few run down her left cheek.

"I'll be fine! I'm going to be back before you know it!" Holly said, giving Ginny a big hug!

"What are you doing?" Hermione had just ran into the room to see all Holly's clothes messily packed into her trunk. "Holly don't! You need to stay at Hogwarts! You can't survive on your own!" Hermione said, coming and picking up anything on the floor and putting it on the side.

"Then by all means come along. I'm leaving at midnight! You have until then to decide and be ready!"

"I'm coming!" Said both other girls simultaneously.

"Ginny! Your barely fourteen!" Holly said, whipping her head around to face the girl who had stood up from her bed.

"So! Your barely fifteen and your planning on running away! It's halloween- the cold weather will be coming in really soon!" Ginny argued.

"I would have no more issues with you coming than anyone else! I just don't think Ron, George or Fred would be too keen!" Holly said, placing her hands on Ginny's shoulders and looking her dead in the eyes.

"Well I can still try!" She said before slowly walking out the room and down the stairs. Holly started stuffing clothes and other equipment she would need into her bag.

"How much do you intend to fit in there?" Hermione asked.

"Ginny put some sort of enchantment on the bag so it has no end!" Holly said, not even looking up to talk to Hermione.

"Ginny told me about that! What was it?" Hermoine asked herself, lightly bashing her head against Holly's bedpost.

"Profunda vorago!" Holly said and Hermione reached inside her bag to not find a bottom to it!

"Thanks! Wait we need to tell Ron!" Hermione said before running out of the room and downstairs. Holly carried on packing until there was nothing left.

That night, Holly and Hermione snuck out of their dorm room and into the firelit common room. They saw Ginny stood in the middle of the room, staring into the fireplace, knowing full well that this could be the last time she sees it!


	9. Welcome home

"No! Absolutely not!" Ron shouted. Ginny was stood facing him, a large backpack on her back.

"Your going! Why can't I?" She insisted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Because your too young!" Ron said, swinging his bag onto his shoulders.

"So are you! Your like a year and a half older than me!" Ginny argued.

"Ginny! Do you know how much I would hate myself if anything happened to you?" Ron said, resting his hands on his little sister's shoulders.

"But you can't leave me on my own here! Who knows what's going to happen now Dumbledore is gone?!" She said, the firelight flickering in her bright eyes.

"You wont be alone! I'll write as much as I can. Anyway Fred and George will be here too!" Ron promised, pulling Ginny into a tight hug. "You've helped us loads but I just don't want you to risk your life trying to help us this time!" He whispered to Ginny as she hugged him back! Hermione and Holly made their way to the fireplace where Ron and Ginny were talking.

"Ginny I want you to remember that we all care about you. We will always be with you- even if it doesn't seem that way." Holly said, trying to comfort the girl stood infront of her.

"Just promise me you'll come back!" She whispered, her eyes glossing over at the thought of her brother and two of her closest friends- they may as well be family- not coming back!

Fred and George emerged from the boys dorms, dressed in their winter clothes.

"You said they were staying here!" Ginny said, momenterily thinking she would be alone at Hogwarts!

"They are! They're just going to apparate us away from here so we can go look for horcruxes!" Hermione explained.

"Since you know their seventeen. They don't have the trace!" Holly added.

"Ok. Can I come and see you off then?" Ginny asked, desperate to not let them go.

"Yeah. We need to sneak out so we're just outside the Hogwarts grounds. Then we can apparate!" Ron said. "So just don't get caught since we can't all fit under the invisibility cloak like we could when we were twelve!" Ron said. Everyone thought back to when things were so much simpler- they had everyone to protect them the best they could. The worst people in the school got was playground bullies or selfish Professors. Now, people were becoming death eaters and Snape had just let Dumbledore die! Possibly even encouraged it!

The six teenagers snuck out of the Griffindor common room and through the corridors. They used the marauders map to see if anyone was round the corner or coming towards them. Luckily, they got outside with no interactions! The only thing they had left to do was run to the gates and climb over them. Then, once they were out of the Hogwarts grounds, Fred and George could apparate them away!

"No one patrols the grounds at night so we should be fine!" Holly whispered, still being cautious. The six made their way to the gates- it was dark so they had to light their wands and pray that there was no one around to see them.

They reached the gate- it was taller than they had anticipated. There was no way they would be able to climb it! Anyway, even if they could, there were large spikes to prevent people climbing over it!

Begrudgingly, Holly made her way all the way back to the quidditch pitch so she could fetch her broom and they could fly over. Her firebolt was leaning against the wall. She hadn't remembered unhanging it since last practice. Hastily, she took it and one random broom for everyone to get back over with then began to make her way out of the broom cupboard when someone spoke.

"I know what your doing!" The voice was distressed but farmiliar- however Holly couldn't pinpoint who it was as they spoke so quietly. "Let me say one thing before you leave!" Holly had turned in circles; she couldn't find the person who was speaking! She knew it was better uf she left- after all if there is someone talking to you in the middle of the night and they are staying hidden, that's usually a bad sign!

"I love you!" Quick footsteps could be heard but they were going away from Holly. She checked to see if anyone was still there before running out of the broom cupboard and looking around for movement. She could see someone at the top of the hill, by the castle- surely that couldn't be them! They were so fast! The hooded figure turned their head and in the darkness, Holly could see two icy gray eyes staring at her. As soon as she saw them, they apparated away. Her immediate thought was Snape since he was the new headmaster so he could apparate within the grounds but first of all, why would he declare his love to Holly? And secondly, why would he do nothing about her running away? She was breaking all the rules- being out if bed, breaking into a locked part of the grounds, running away! Just to name a few!

As Holly reached the other five, she was completely out of breath. Not to mention, her whole brain had been messed up by the mystery person who loved her! She decided it wasn't important and didn't mention it!

Everyone took turns flying over the gate and passing the broom through the gap in the bars. Eventually, everyone was over and they all said goodbye. There were tears as Ron, Hermione and Holly said goodbye to Ginny one last time before apparating away. They had instructed Fred and George to send them to a random place Holly had found on a note in her pocket earlier that day that also had 'for horcruxes' written at the bottom of the paper. She wasn't sure how people kept on sneaking her things without her noticing but they were very good at it!

The five were landed in a small town. They saw a little sign saying 'Lavenham Road'. They were in the right place!

"Thank you George, Fred!" Holly said, giving the twins one last hug and leaving them with Ron for a family moment. Holly and Hermione were slightly creeped out by the town, all the buildings were old and rickety and looked as if they would fall at the slightest touch! A crack was heard behind them and Fred and George were gone. Ron approached the two girls and looked at the same old buildings.

"So what do we do now?" He asked, unimpressed by the lack of inspiration for horcrux hunting.

"We look around!" Holly said, making her way down the cobbled street. The three walked around the houses, all of them seeming to be inhabited by wizarding families as there were couples sat, still wide awake, their kids practicing magic. The three wondered if this place ever fell asleep! At the very end of the road, there was a house that was shattered to peices. A huge chunk of the house was gone but the rusting, moldy furniture was still left inside!

"Do you think it could be in here?" Hermione asked, breaking the silence. Neither Holly nor Ron answered, they just made their way through the creaky door. As they entered the house, many things scurried away. Mainly bugs and small rodents. However, one stayed put. It was a large brown rat that was asleep and didn't seem to wake up. This rat bought back memories for Ron and he went white as a sheet of fresh parchment.

"Scabbers!" He wispered and Holly widened her eyes, bringing a hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming- they were being watched. The three ran out of the broken down house and down the street a different way to where they had comd from. The trio prayed that no one had been following them- if so, they would most likely be dead by dawn!

They reached a pub that was full of life. Many drunk men and a few women were coming out of it, tripping over their own feet! The three minors enterd the pub in hopes that they looked old enough to not get kicked out! The moment they entered, everyone went slient. There were two people Holly recognised: Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. _What are they doing here? Why have we already been caught?_

"What are you doing here?" A tear-stained-cheeked Remus said. "Your meant to be at school!"

"No one was meant to find out!" Holly murmered without making eye contact with her ex-Professor. She looked over his shoulder to see a very drunk Sirius sobbing into the bar muttering something inaudible through all the tears!

"Why are you both crying?" Holly asked as Remus wiped his eye.

"What day is it?" Asked Remus, staring Holly straight in the eye.

"Halloween!" She responded, looking around for a reason Lupin was asking her this. He looked into her eyes, digging for a different answer. "31st October?" Holly suggested and the man infront of her tensed up.

"And where are you?" He prompted.

"Well we apparated to Lavenham Road." Holly said, still looking around at all the silent witnesses to this perculiar event.

"Which is where?" Remus asked as indicated to the door. Holly walked back out and was hit in the face, mentally not physically, by a sign:

 _Godric's Hollow_

Pain ran through Holly's whole body. How had she been so stupid? She had just been tricked into coming to the home that she had lived in up to the age of 1! Across the road, a graveyard with many tombstones was being covered by fallen autumnal leaves. Holly ran across the road and entered the graveyard. Immediately, she was greeted by two large marble stones

The first said:

 _Here lies James Potter._

 _Beloved husband, father, friend, brother and a great asset to the wizarding world._

 _He will be remembered by all who have met him._

 _Died 31/10/1981_

The second had a similar message:

 _Here lies Lily Potter._

 _Beloved wife, mother, friend and witch._

 _The world will never be the same without her._

 _She will be remembered by all close to her._

 _Died 31/10/1981_

Holly was distraught! It was the anniversary of her parents' death. This was the last place she had ever been truly happy. Ever since then, there had always been something bothering her- either the Dursleys or a raging lunatic that had tried to kill her (she supposed this also applied to the Dursleys even if them killing her was indirect. To be fair they tried to lock her in her room without any basic living facilities apart from a bed and clothes when she was twelve!)

Holly broke down and fell to the floor. How had she not remembered her parents' death anniversary? How had she not realised that Lavenham Road was in Godric's Hollow? How had she not realised that the rat had been placed there for a reason? It was all a trap! Someone knew she was going to be there. Holly looked around to see Remus. His scars seemed to be faded. Sirius had exited the pub but his red rimmed eyes seemed to be alot lighter and his hair darker.

"What spell did you teach me in private lessons and in what year?" Holly said, pointing her wand at Lupin.

"And what did you escape on when we set you free?" She flicked her focus to Sirius. Neither of the men responded. Smirks just spread across their faces.

"Holly!" Hermione screamed. "Holly watch out!"

She ducked behind a random gravestone and listened as Ron and Hermione battled the two men. Peeking round the corner, she saw that they were not fighting Remus and Sirius, but two strangers. This must have been the effects of polyjuice potion. Once both were knocked out, the trio rushed away.

"Wait! If that was polyjuice then where did they get the hair from?" Holly asked as they reached the blown up house. They checked behind them to make sure there was no one following them and the cautiously entered the house.

"Moony, Padfoot?" Holly whispered. She also noticed that the rat was still in the exact same place. As soon as she found her Godfather and her Professor, that rat was going to die- doesn't matter wat she wanted to do in her 3rd year!

The floor boards were creaky so the trio had to be careful not to make a sound. Unfortunately, they couldn't use a silencing charm since they were still underage and had the trace on them. When they reached the top of the stairs, Holly went into the first room- her baby room. Everything was covered in fun, happy colours and there were loads of toys you would expect a baby witch to play with! Holly felt tears well up in her eyes as she thought of what this room would look like now if her parents hadn't been killed. Maybe they would still live here, or maybe they would have moved out! If Holly herself had died at the hands of Voldemort, would the house have been rebuilt or would it still be left as a memorial to others?

Ron and Hermione stayed silent. They knew Holly needed this and they weren't going to take it away from her! They carried on searching through the house for the two kidnapped people. It had been around ten minutes and the whole house had been searched, top to bottom. Left to right. Corner to corner. In every little knook and cranny! There was no one to be found! Holly however, hadn't moved an inch. She was still stood silently in her baby room. It seemed to have lost alot of colour and happiness but Holly still vaugely remembered it! She remembered sitting in her crib with her mother infront of her, she remembered the traumatic flash of green that hit Lily and then herself but left nothing but a scar! Reaching up to her scar, Holly felt the tears finally roll down her cheeks. She had been robbed of her childhood. Her happiness.

A scutter of claws on the damp wooden floor was heard and a large brown rat scampered across the floor. Snapping back into reality, Holly jumped at the rat, the furry body just escaping her grasp but the worm like tail became trapped in her fingers. A tight grip was placed around Pettigrew as Holly carried him out to where Ron and Hermione were searching.

"I've got him! The fucking traitor!" Holly muttered, still cautious that someone could be nearby.

"Is that Scabbers?" Ron asked. Holly nodded in response. This rat had been the one who had stayed with Ron for three years before transforming into Peter Pettigrew and running off to serve the Dark Lord.

"We need someone to kill him!" Hermione whispered. "We can't do it as we've already used magic and the ministry will be onto us soon!" The three stayed silent and nodded their heads in agreement!

They carefully made their way back to the pub, rat held down in Holly's pocket where it couldn't transform or run away.

"Excuse me! Hermione said to the bartender. Can you please help us?" The middle- aged man stopped cleaning the large glasses and slipped his wand into his pocket.

"Of course! What do you need help with?" He asked, leaning over the bar so Hermione could hear him better.

"We need you to kill something for us. It's a rat!" She whispered as to not make his sales go down from the rumor that there were rats in the pub.

"Have you bought it in here?" He asked, straightening up and frowning at Hermione.

"We really need it killing. Please just do it!" Hermione begged as Ron and Holly looked on.

"It will come at a price!" He said, quickly glancing over to Holly who was struggling to contain the rat in her pocket.

"Anything Sir! Thank you so much!" Hermione and the man made their way over to Holly and Ron and the four of them stepped outside.

"So remind me- what did you wnt me to do?" He asked looking at the three teenagers who had started pestering him.

"Just kill the rat! Thats all." Ron said sheepishly.

"Ok! You guys aren't muggles are you?" He asked.

"No." Holly said. Did this guy who worked and probably lived in Godric's Hollow- the place Holly had been born and survived the killing curse- not recognise her? That was a first!

"Avarda kadavra!" He said and a flash of green light hit the rat that Holly had bought out her pocket. The other three stood shocked. This guy had just used the killing curse on a rat; at least it was dead!

"Now for my payment!" He said, a smirk growing on his face. In one swift movement, he grabbed the wrists of all three teenagers and they were apparating. When they reached their destination, all three felt dizzy! A manor house stood infront of them. The dark walls loomed over them, blocking out the bright shine of the full moon and large stars. Ropes were suddenly wrapped around all three teenagers' hands and they were pushed forwards towards the eerie house. As all four of them got closer to the house, Holly looked around. The trees thinned out as they got closer to the overgrown building and something farmiliar was revealed.

Holly stopped dead in her tracks. Her legs physically wouldn't move! Trauma flashed through her memory. She was face to face with the graveyard!


	10. The escape

The man behind Holly was trying to push her along. She wanted to obey and not be killed, but she couldn't. Her eyes were flooded with memories- she could see Cedric die almost as if it was real and happening right that moment! Eventually, the bartender picked Holly up off the ground.

"NO! LEAVE THEM ALONE!" She yelled as the thought of Ron and Hermione ending the same way Cedric had flashed through her mind.

"We won't do anything to your little friends as long as you don't make any trouble!" He said, wrestling Holly to the ground so she didn't run away. "And those odds aren't looking too good for you at the moment!"

The man walked ahead towards the castle- like house and pointed his wand at the door, it swung open to reveal a long table seated with hooded figures. As Holly started to get up from the ground, she noticed Ron and Hermione hiding their bags in the large hedge row so no one would find anything in them. Holly did the same.

Just as she was putting the heavy backpack in the bush, the locket Dumbledore had gifted her fell out of her t-shirt and hit her in the face.

 _I need you_ _to take care of this until you can destroy it! This is a very important peice of magic that will, in the end destroy Voldemort!_

Holly knew that if she had something that could destroy him, then he would most definitely take it. She whipped it off and hid it along with everything else. A small amount of pressure was immediately lifted from her. She felt a little more at ease! Then, all the tension built up as she had to approach the house. Her, Ron and Hermione all squeezed each others hands- trying their best to reassure the other two but it wasn't working. When they reached the door, Holly was grabbed by her shoulders and thrust into the room, the other two shut outside.

"No! Holly!" Ron whispered under his breath. But Holly was already inside.

There was some banging on the door but there was no chance they had of opening it! Holly saw a huge table, still full of hooded figures.

"Miss Potter!" Said a raspy voice from the head if the table. "How nice of you to join us! It was very handy that Draco slipped you that note in the broom cupboard!" Holly's eyes widened- that had been Draco? The Malfoy git had made her go to Godric's Hollow, made her want to kill the rat, got her captured.

"What do you want?" Holly practically whispered.

"I want to kill you! But not here! It should be where your dear friends can see you!" Voldemort announced, rising from the head if the table. He rested a hand on Holly's shoulder and breathed down her neck. Holly didn't move an inch.

"Imperio!" He whispered and the girl had no choice but to comply. Holly had no memory of getting to the graveyard, but she did somehow. When she snapped back into reality, she was locked up- in the exact same place she had been when Voldemort had been resurrected.

Holly looked around to see Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Remus and Tonks being held back by different death eaters.

"I told you to leave them alone!" Holly screamed. "Don't hurt them!"

"I have no intention of hurting them! But if you don't do what I ask then something could perhaps slip my memory and they might die!" Voldemort threatened. "Now I want you to remain very still! If you try to escape I will kill you slowly and painfully. However if you don't run then you shall die faster!" The raspy voice said as the clouds shifted in the night sky. It was the first time the moon had properly been visible. Holly was released from the tight grip that the stone statue had on her. She looked to the sky- she wanted her last memory to be somewhere where things were so much simpler. Then the round moon caught her attention. She shot a look to Lupin who's eyes had gone dark and Tonks and Sirius were struggling on either side of him. He began to grow even taller than he already was and his back hunched, ripping his distressed cardigan and revealing a light brown hairy body! The warewolf howled at the moon while everyone backed away. Out of fear, Voldemort and his death eaters apparated away to escape the wrath of the uncontrollable wolf! Sirius became Padfoot the moment he was let go and Tonks rounded up the three teenagers. She forced the three school kids to stay away from him and to let her and Sirius handle things. They didn't really have much choice since they still couldn't use magic outside of school and they were just three fifteen year olds!

"Do you still have that time turner Hermione?" Ron asked, wimpering slightly at the huge warewolf.

"Nope! It was taken away from me after the third year since the school didn't want to have the ministry on their back for the misuse if magical artifacts!

"Well how should we try to protect ourselves and two adults from a warewolf and from Voldemort?" Holly asked, ducking behind a bush so they couldn't be seen.

"I'm not quite sure! But we'll figure something out." Hermione said, rumaging through her bag to find something potentially useful. Holly and Ron were doing the same thing. A shimmering cloak was pulled from Holly's bag and she put it on her lap so she didn't lose it! The three continued searching for something helpful when Hermione came across something.

"Got something! Might work, might not!" She grabbed the invisibility cloak from Holly's lap and put it on. Before she did, Ron and Holly noticed a small vile of a blueish black potion in her hand.

"Hermione! What are you doing?" Ron hissed, not knowing where she was at all!

"Saving your asses!" She whispered but they still couldn't tell where she was.

They could just about hear the footsteps go around the hedge row and into the graveyard but then the howl of Moony filled the air and the girl's whereabouts was lost!

Hermione ran over to Padfoot, Moony and Tonks. She haf her little bottle of wolfsbane potion and she began to uncork it. She carefully got her wand out of her pocket.

"Stupefy!" She whispered and the wolf stood still. Without the need of a prompt, she ran up to the semi- unconscious beast and opened its mouth, tipping the whole vile of wolfsbane into his mouth. Moony was very big in warewolf form so Hermione could onky just reach. However, her plan had worked. He was slowly starting to show signs of Remus Lupin rather than Moony! As the wolf turned into a man, he fell unconscious from the stunning spell Hermione had hit him with. Sirius and Tonks rushed over to him, pushing Hermione out of the way.

Holly and Ron approached her and congratulated her on knowing what to do at all times.

"How come you have everything for any situation?" Ron asked.

"Because I plan ahead!" Hermione responded, finally getting her breathing back in order.

"But how did you know we would be at this graveyard and it would be a full moon and Lupin would be here?" Holly enquired, turning to look at Hermione.

"I didn't! I just thought it would be important so I stole some ingredients from Snape's store then I went into the girls bathroom and made a bunch of useful potions!" She responded, letting out a small relieved laugh. Once Lupin had been sorted out, Sirius and Tonks woke him up and helped him steady himself.

"What did you do Hermione?" Tonks asked, walking over to the fifteen year olds.

"I got some wolfsbane potion, stunned Remus and then made him drink it while he was semi- unconscious." Explained Hermione as if it were the simplest thing in the world!

"And you knew that would work?" She asked, impressed at Hermione's knowledge.

"I had a good feeling about it." She replied, smiling at her small victory.

"We need to get you out of here! You've just used magic out of school and you still have the trace!" Sirius said, still supporting the much taller Remus who now had the other man's coat on.

"Could we get the trace off them? Is that even possible?" Tonks asked as they all made their way out of the graveyard which still made Holly feel sick.

"I've never really thought about it! I suppose they could use aging potions?" Sirius suggested as he took Holly's hand, with Remus drowsy on his right shoulder. Tonks took Ron and Hermione's hand and apparated away, Sirius doing the same.

When the six reached Number 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius and Tonks helped Remus into the living room and lay him down on the sofa. They, along with the trio of teenagers, collected in the kitchen.

"Ok. First things first, what were you doing in that graveyard?" Sirius said, rather intimidating as he never told anyone off!

"We had to do something!" Holly said, nit wanting to tell her Godfather that they had run away from Hogwarts.

"What is something?" He interrogated, folding his arms and leaning on the back of one of the many chairs.

"Dumbledore asked me to do it before he died!" Holly whispered.

"What's he got three fifteen year olds who, apart from Hermione, seem to have little common sense!" Ron looked slightly offened but quickly agreed with what Sirius had said. Holly reached inside her bag and pulled out the locket she had ripped off before going to meet Voldemort. Sirius went as pale as a sheet of fresh parchment! He snached the locket from Holly's hand and inspected it thoroughly.

"Who gave you this?" He hissed.

"Dumbledore did!" Holly replied, subtlety backing away.

"Where did he find it?" He said, raising his voice a little.

"I don't know! He just told me to destroy it!" Holly replied, getting a bit scared.

"He died trying to get rid of this!" He shouted, throwing the locket to the floor.

"SIRIUS!" Tonks yelled and a but of colour resumed it's place in his face.

"Sorry! Tonks can you explain? I'm going to check on Remus." He whispered before leaving the room.

"What happened to him?" Hermione asked as soon as the door was shut.

"His brother Regulus, you might have heard of him. He died when Sirius was 20 trying to destroy this locket." Tonks explained, going over to pick the locket up off the floor. "It won't be destroyed by magic, it needs to be with something stronger than that!" She added when she saw Holly reach for her wand.

"What will destroy it?" Ron asked.

"I have no clue! I just know what others have told me when I joined the order." Tonks said. "Now all of you need to go to bed then fully explain why your not at school in the morning!" She added before walking out of the kitchen.

That night, Sirius didn't say a word to Holly, Ron and Hermione. He just went straight to his room without checking on any of them. Holly couldn't sleep- she had put the locket back on after it had been left on the table and after being back in the graveyard, the nightmares were back, stronger than ever!

The next morning, all three teenagers were woken up by an equally as tired Remus. He looked rough but no one mentioned anything as they didn't want to stress him out any more than he would be.

"So what are you three doing out of Hogwarts?" He asked, alot more gently than Sirius had done.

"Dumbledore sent me to destroy Vol..."

"Don't say his name!" Sirius interrupted- alot calmer than the previous night. "I heard something about a taboo being put on his name when we were kidnapped!"

"Well Dumbledore sent me to destroy you- know- who's horcruxes!" Holly said sheepishly.

"Why has he made you do it? And why now?" Remus asked, rather flustered that his ex- employer had made three teenagers go on a dangerous mission to destroy peices of dark magic!

"I don't know! I guess he just knew that if he didn't tell me when he did then I would never find out!" Holly replied, looking down to the ground nervously.

"So is that why you were in the graveyard last night? You were looking for horcruxes?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah. We were in Godric's Hollow and the rat was there so we got someone to kill it but then he apparated us to the graveyard!" Holly blurted as if it was all one word.

"You were in Godric's Hollow?" Remus said, the small spark in his eye burning out.

"Yeah! We went to my old house!" Holly whispered, remembering the huge whole in the wall and the faint memory of her mother dying while she was just a defenceless baby sat in her crib!

"We would have gone if it weren't for you know who! I hope you know that!" Remus said, looking sad because his best friend's kid had just visited his death place without any support from him!

"Yeah I know!" Holly said, looking down to the ground.

"Anyway what exactly do you have to do going horcrux hunting?" Tonks asked, her happy voice a little more serious than usual but still bringing some light to the room.

"Well we don't really know!" Hermione said after a long silence.

"But do know you where any of them are?" Tonks proceeded.

"No! And we don't know how to destroy them either." Ron muttered very awkwardly.

"I know how to!" Sirius piped up. Everyone turned to look at him, waiting for an answer. "Before he died, Regulus stole the sword of Griffindor and it would have worked if he hadn't been caught and killed!" He said, his voice shaking slightly at the mention of Regulus.

"So we have to find the sword of Griffindor?" Ron asked, raising his eyebrows in shock.

"Pretty much yeah! Unless someone can find it for you!" Sirius replied while cocking his head to the side so it was pointing at Kreacher. _House elves have to do as it's master says! Would that work?_

"Would Kreacher find it if we ordered him to?" Hermione asked, staring at the wrinkled house elf with a furrowed brow.

"I assume so. House elves must obey their masters until they are set free!" Sirius remarked as Kreacher made his way to the small group of people.

"Is there something you would like Kreacher to do Master Black?" Asked the house elf, putting the dustpan and brush down.

"Holly, Hermione, Ron and I would like you to find the sword of Gryffindor and bring it back for us!" He ordered.

"Kreacher will try his best to find it- even if it is the last thing he does!" The house elf clicked his boney fingers and dissappeared with a quiet crack.

"Now we wait!" Remus said, standing up from the chair he was sat in.

For the whole day people came in and out of Number 12 Grimmauld Place- most likely something to do with the order. The trio had to hide upstairs when Molly Weasley turned up so they wouldn't be killed for running away and Sirius, Remus and Tonks wouldn't be killed for helping them! As it neared 6am the next day, a loud bang was heard in the living room, waking up anyone who was still asleep.

"Kreacher has searched and searched but cannot fiund the sword you instructed Kreacher to get Master!" Said the house elf once everyone had made it downstairs. He was empty handed but even if he had managed to find the sword, it would have been impossible to hold it in his shaking hands. The elf had a large blood stain on his pillowcase tunic that most definitely hadn't been there before!

"Kreacher! Are you alright?" Hermione panicked.

"Kreacher is fine. He has suffered much worse from previous Masters!" The house elf claimed, backing away from Hermione.

"Do you think we'll be able to find the sword Kreacher?" Holly asked, diffusing some of the tension in the room.

"Kreacher could not find it anywhere. He searched and searched but it was nowhere to be found." He said nervously. "Kreacher shall now have to punish himself over the impossible task he was given."

"Filling us with confidence there!" Ron said, calming Hermione since the house elf had suffered so much pain in the past which went against all her S.P.E.W morals!

Luckily, it had just been the three teenagers and Sirius in the house at that point otherwise the secret that they had escaped school and their whereabouts would be known!

"What are you going to do now?" Sirius asked as Holly turned the locket over and over in her hand.

"Go on and find more horcruxes! Hopefully we'll manage to find the sword." She said, tucking the locket into her shirt.

"Please be careful! All of you!" He said, a knot forming between his eyebrows.

"Don't worry. We will be!" Holly said, giving her Godfather a goodbye hug. She wouldn't know when the next time she would see him would be. That's if she ever did see him again! If she died finding horcruxes then this would be her last memory of him. Comforting- she felt like she belonged there. Something she hadn't felt until she was twelve and she stayed with the Weasleys for the first time!

"I promise I'll come back!" Holly whispered, not entirely sure if this was true. Then she slipped under the invisibility cloak along with Ron and Hermione and set off into the busy street...


	11. Off grid

All three of them were surprised that people had let them go. They all assumed that the three of them would immediately be handed over to school and probably be expelled- but they weren't! Now they had no clue where to go- they couldn't apparate, or use magic to help them- they were alone with just the recourses they could find or that they had in their bags.

The trio had been walking all day- the only time they stopped was to find some food out of their bags that Kreacher had provided them with under Sirius' instructions. Around half an hour away from Grimmauld Place they decided it would be safe to take the invisibility cloak off.

"Where do we go now?" Holly asked, bundling her cloak up and tucking it into her bag where it would still be easy to reach incase they needed it.

"Well we can use magic at the moment so we need to be careful." Hermione pointed out as they continued walking through the field they were in.

"We could go to the Ministry!" Ron suggested.

"What would we do? Hand ourselves in!" Holly asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

"No! Delete ourselves from the documents!" Ron said as if it were obvious.

"That's a thing?" Hermione asked sceptically.

"I heard my dad talking about it once- a bunch of sixteen year olds tried to do it but they got caught on a few years back." Ron explained.

"And what if we get caught?" Holly asked.

"We have an invisibility cloak. No one can see you with that on!" Ron said, pointing to Holly's bag.

"Unless you have Luna's glasses- which can't be too hard to come by if a fourteen year old Hogwarts student has a pair!" Hermione pointed out.

"How many people who work in the Ministry of Magic do you think will have a pair of them and wear them all the time!" Ron asked.

"That's a fair point but how would we even get in?" Holly asked.

"More importantly how would we get there?" Hermione asked before waiting for Ron to answer Holly.

"Muggle transport. You'd be best at that part Hermione!" Ron said. "Anyway if we use the regular enterance but use the invisibility cloak then we should be able to sneak in!" Ron suggested.

"When could we do this?" Holly asked.

"As soon as we find out how to make our way to the Ministry!" Ron said, turning to face Hermione.

"What? Does it look like I currently have a map of all the public transport in London?" She asked. "Because if YOU do then please share with me!"

"Dumbledore!" Holly realised, remembering that at some point in her years at Hogwarts that Dumbledore had said he had a map of the London underground on his left knee!

"What? He's dead!" Ron said, frowning at her.

"He has a scar of the London underground!" Holly said. "On his left knee!"

"I feel like Dumbledore is a little far away right now- if we'd have thought this through a little more then we could have checked!" Hermione sighed.

Holly began to think of another plan that wouldn't involve them getting caught but would also be fast. Polyjuice was out of the question- they wouldn't be able to find all the ingredients and then brew it quickly! None of them could use magic since that was the whole point of them breaking into the ministry!

"Our only chance is to use the invisibility cloak then somehow find a map and break in after hours!" Holly said eventually. "I don't think there's another way!"

The trio all agreed on this plan. They were wondering around- almost aimlessly- for a few hours under the invisibility cloak trying to find some sort of visitor centre. Eventually, they found one and when it got busy, Holly reached her hand out and stole a map from the counter. The three ran down an alleyway so they could finally get out from underneath the cloak that was extremely uncomfortable to walk under- especially with two other people under it!

"Hermione you know the most about maps! What does all of this mean?" Ron asked, pointing to random spots on the map.

"Well we are here!" Hermione said, pointing to somewhere in the bottom corner. "And the ministry is somewhere round here." She pointed to the middle of the map where the ministry would be if it was marked.

"We could walk that if we wanted to. But I have a feeling we don't!" Holly said. "So we could get the tube from here to central London!" She added.

"Yeah there should be a tube station somewhere around here." Hermione said, looking around the corner. "It's just down there actually!"

"So do we need to get any money?" Ron asked, pulling out a few galleons from his pocket. "The rest of it is in my bag!"

"We will have to sneak on. We won't be able to pay with wizarding money!" Holly said, checking the map to see if it mentioned prices.

"So we have to break into a tube station, then into the ministry, then into the part where they keep everyone's records, then back out of the ministry then we are finally free to use magic!" Ron summarised.

"Yeah..." Hermione agreed. "But it seems alot longer than it actually is!"

The three pulled the invisibility cloak over their heads again and set off for the tube station. It was reaching dark now and they knew the ministry would be closing down soon so by the time they got to central London, they would be just in time! Sneaking over the barriers proved to be harder than they first expected since all three of them had to get over at the same time whilst staying covered by the cloak. Luckily, most people would be leaving central London so the station wasn't too busy, only a few people here and there.

Once they were on the train, they found out how many stops they would need to get off in. It turned out that their train ride was half an hour with ten minutes between each stop- making it perfect timing for all the workers to have left and the only people who would be there would be security but seeing as they were invisible, that wouldn't be much of an issue!

"Central London." Said the train woman's voice flatly. After around ten seconds she said it again and kept repeating it.

"We get it! Central London!" Ron whispered, getting annoyed at the woman's monotoned voice.

"Welcome to the muggle world Ron!" Hermione replied as the train stopped and the doors opened. They all went out onto the platform, making sure to not get the cloak stuck in the door.

It was way more busy on this platform than it had been on the train- everyone was most likely jut arriving to get on a train but to return to a different part of London. The three of them ducked into a nearby waiting room that was empty before pulling the invisibility cloak off.

"How d'you want to get past all these people then?" Holly asked, listening to the loud bustle of people as the train they had just been on pulled away.

"We could just wait it out!" Ron suggested, Hermione was looking up at an electronic board that had many times and places on it.

"Next train is in fifteen minutes. Are you willing to wait that long?" Hermione whispered as she heard someone talking just outside.

"Well it's either that or trying to make our way through the crowd under the invisibility cloak without touching anything because not many people are used to seeing things fall over by themselves or being touched by something that's not there!" Holly said, stuffing the cloak into her bag.

"Or we could just go outside without the cloak." Ron said.

"Not an option!" Hermione said, staring at the wall. "Hogwarts is one step ahead of us!" She whispered. There were three posters up on the wall. One had a still picture of Ron on it, one of Hermione and one of Holly. They all had the words 'Missing child. If found walking around then please hand them into some form of Parliament building!'

"They've got us being watched by everyone!" Holly realised. "Does Parliament know about witches and wizards then?"

"If they didn't before then they do now!" Ron sulked. "Guess we're going to be spending a decent amount of time under that cloak!"

"Until we can use magic again!" Hermione said, her face lighting up. "I know a disformation spell! I can make all of us look different- kind of. We'll be just unrecognisable so no one will pay us any attention!"

"Can you really?" Holly exclaimed, Hermione nodded her head violently. "Have we ever told you how brilliant you are Hermione?"

"You may have mentioned it!" She smiled, clearly proud of herself.

"Train incoming. Please mind the gap when boarding!" Said the monotoned train lady.

"Guess now's our chance!" Ron said as Holly took the cloak out of her bag.

"Train leaving. Please mind the doors!" Said the voice and the train shot away. The platform was basically silent now! Just to be sure, the three hid under thr invisibility cloak and exited the waiting room- there wasn't anyone left on the platform. Holly whisked the cloak off and put it back in her bag and they made their way out of the station.

Since it was reaching dark, there weren't many people around- Central London wasn't exactly the party scene either so they wouldn't have to worry about avoiding muggles wondering round. Since it was hard to see clearly, past the dark night and the thick fog, Holly, Ron and Hermione deemed it unnecessary to put the cloak on until they got to the Ministry.

The three reached a completely isolated street, they couldn't hear anything besides their own footsteps and breathing. A bright red phone box was all locked up so they knew to get into the Ministry, they would need to use another way!

"I know how my dad usually gets in!" Ron said.

"How? I apparated here and then used the visitor entrance when I came for my hearing!" Holly said, thinking back to that horrible curse.

"It should be just around here!" He said, rounding the corner. There was nothing but a public toilet that didn't look too welcoming.

"Where is it Ron?" Hermione asked, looking around to try and find some sort of door.

"It's there." Ron said as if it were obvious. "In the public toilet... That does look kind of disgusting but trust me!"

The two girls followed Ron into the mens toilet that was extremely dark. They fumbled around trying to find a light switch but even with the lights on they couldn't see much.

"So where's the Ministry?" Holly asked, wrinkling her nose.

"You have to flush yourself..." Ron said awkwardly.

"Your joking!" Hermione said, gently kicking a door open. Ron just stared at her, biting his lip.

"I don't think he is 'Mione!" Holly said, opening one of the doors for herself.

"Well it's either this or not being able to use any magic!" Ron said.

"Well lets go on three then." Holly said, making her way into the cubicle. She heard light splashes as the other two stepped into so she followed.

"1... 2... 3!" Ron said an all three toilets flushed. It was a weird sensation, Holly felt as if she was being whirled around a washing machine. When she landed on the Ministry floor, she fully expected to be drenched in toilet water but there wasn't a damp patch anywhere on her!

The Ministry was dark, only a few candles were lighting it up- Holly quickly whipped out the invisibility cloak from her bag and draped it over the three of them, unsure of what surveillance this place had.

"So we need to get to the department of underage wizardry to remove ourselves from all the documents!" Ron whispered to the other two. "If I remember correctly that should be on the sixth floor!"

The trio shuffled over to one of the many lifts on the far wall- they all seemed to go to different places. They found the one that said sixth floor and opened it, the criss cross door slid open and the three of them suffled inside.

"Department of underage wizardry!" Ron muttered, scanning his eyes over the buttons before jamming his finger into one. Without hesitation, the lift jolted up and to the right. They had arrived at there destination within seconds. Infront of them, there was a large black door with small golden writing on it saying the department and all the people working in it. Hermione tried to push the door open but it wouldn't budge.

"Can they track us using magic within the Ministry?" She asked looking over at Ron.

"Probably, bubut there isn't anyone working right now- the whole place is empty!" Ron said. "I don't see the point in having to but they must have a reason!"

"Alohamora!" She whispered before trying the door again. "Alohamora!" She said a little louder. "Alohamora!"

"I don't think is going to work. Can you get 'alohamora' resistant doors?" Holly asked.

"I guess you can in the Ministry." Hermione said, thinking of another spell to use. "You two might want to stand back!" She said, fully stepping out of the cloak.

"Why?" Holly asked. "What are you..."

"Bombarda!" Hermione shouted and the door flew off it's hinges as it cracked in two.

"Well there's always the violent method!" Ron said as the three of them made their way into the corridor.

The moment they entered, an alarm went off and a red light began to flash.

"Intrusion in the Department of underage wizardry! Intrusion in the Department of underage wizardry!" Said a voice over and over again.

"Under the cloak now!" Holly snapped to Hermione who was still out in the open.She slipped under and just in time- a large team of Ministry members came running past with their wands lit. The trio was pressed against the wall as best they could, making sure they were all hidden. They were stood their for what felt like forever before the Ministry team came walking back, checking everywhere more thoroughly and the lights and alarm switched off. The lift closed and pulled away.

"That was clo..." Ron whispered, being cut off by Hermione's hand beig clapped over his mouth.

"There's one left!" She hissed. They waited for another few minutes before a farmiliar face walked past them- it was Mad-eye Moody! None of them dared breathe! He knew that they weren't at Hogwarts- he had seen them when they were at Number 12 Grimmauld Place! The lift came rushing back and before he got in, he turned around and looked directly at the trio before winking subtly at them and wizzing off into the main section.

All three let out a small sigh of relief, however they still didn't know whether there was anything watching them so they stayed under the invisibility cloak to remain hidden. They went past door after door, having to go up close to know what was engraved onto all of them. There was a room full of doccuments of every case of underage magic used, a room for the laws on underage magic and finally, at the end of the corridor, one for all the underage wizards in the country and also the trace!

"In here!" Holly whispered, opening the door which to her surprise, was actually open! They pulled off the cloak and lit their wands, looking for some form of light source- there wasn't one, the only light the person who worked in there must get would be from a few candles and flaming tourches on the wall.

"Are we going first names or last?" Holly whispered, closing the door behind her.

"Last. Because all of the 'A's are surnames!" Hermione said, pointing to a kid called Dominic Aaron.

"Who's Dominic Aaron?" Ron asked, trying to think of the word Dominic being called out for the sorting ceremony over any of their years at Hogwarts.

"Could be homeschooled if his parents are really old fashioned!" Hermione suggested. "Or he might not have come to Hogwarts yet!"

"Guess so!" Ron agreed.

"So how does this thing work?" Holly asked, tapping the machinery that didn't seem to respond to her.

"There must be some sort of incantation!" Ron whispered, pulling his wand from his robes. Just as he did, someone walked into the room, Mad-eye was back!

"Now I do wonder how much magic Holly Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger have been doing outside of Hogwarts!" He muttered just loud enough for the three to hear. "Invenire nomen H Potter!" He said, pointing his wand at the magical machinery. "That's not very good now is it! She must be out of school still!" He then did this for Ron and Hermione aswell. Before turning away, he paused in the doorway. "I've always wanted to delete someone from the records. Shame I'll never get to use the Semper Delere incantation!" He added before hobbling off and shutting the door.

"Well that was useful!" Hermione said, slipping out from under the invisibility cloak.

"Guess someone's trying to help!" Ron added as Holly whipped the invisibility cloak off them.

"Invenire nomen H Potter!" She said and her name came speeding towards her and all the magic she had ever performed outside of Hogwarts came up. "Semper Delere!" She said and all records of her were deleted- she didn't come up on the records, almost like she didn't exist! "Wingardium leviosa!" She whispered, making a small inkpot float up- just to check that she wasn't being tracked. Nothing! "I don't exist anymore!" She said proudly.

Next Hermione stepped up to delete herself from the systems. Finally Ron did. The trio now no longer existed- they weren't being tracked! Now all they had to do was get out unnoticed! The three snuck out of the room and down the corridor, reaching the empty doorway where a locked door used to stand. They called the lift and returned to the main hall- hidden under the invisibility cloak.

There was a small group of Ministry officials huddled in the middle of the room, they were probably talking about the break in warning and how it had been faulty. The three of them held their breath as they scuttled past them. They weren't sure how to get out since they weren't quite sre if the toilet system worked both ways.

"There's always the floo network!" Ron whispered, nodding his head to the huge row of unlit fireplaces.

"Would that work?" Holly asked, slightly skeptical that they would be noticed.

"We could always try and apparate!" Hermione suggested.

"I can't apparate! Who do you think I am?" Ron asked.

"I know the theory!" Hermione claimed. "McGonagall let me sit in on the lessons!" She said.

"What? Why?" Holly exclaimed.

"She wanted me to take the test as soon as possible- said I have over and above potential!" Hermione whispered.

"So what do you have to do?" Ron asked hesitantly.

"Do you trust me?" Hermione asked, taking Holly and Ron's hands.

"In most cases... Why?" Holly asked but before she got an answer, she was out on the streets of London, her knees had given way and she was on the ground.

"I am so sorry!" Hermione exclaimed, rushing over to Ron who was bleeding slightly from his ankle. "I must have splinched you!" She said. It was only a minor injury but she still felt extremely guilty.

"What did you do?" Holly asked, feeling rather queezy.

"I apparated... For the first time... When I've had no lessons!" She replied awkwardly.

"But what's wrong with Ron?" Holly asked.

"I splinched him!" Hermione said. "It's not too bad- there's been worse but still!"

"Is it just a cut?" Ron asked, worried that it might be something deadly- splinch didn't sound like the friendliest of words after all.

"Essentially! Hang on I must have some bandages in my bag somewhere!" Hermione exclaimed, taking the backpack off. "Accio bandages!" She said, placing her wand between her teeth and catching the rolled up white fabric. She wrapped Ron's ankle up and tucked the end in.

"That should stop the bleeding a bit!" Hermione said with a comforting smile. "Do you think you can walk on it?" She asked, taking Ron's hands and helping him up.

"Yeah I'll be fine!" He claimed, beginning to walk with a slight limp.

"Where do we go now?" Holly asked as the trio made their way to nowhere in particular.

"I'm not really sure! Do you have any clue how to find any of these places?" Ron asked.

"Well we could always go back to Godric's Hollow, I have a feeling whoever gave you that note was genuinely trying to help!" Hermione suggested, making Holly almost walk into a street lamp.

"There were people there trying to kill us!" She exclaimed, just about dodging the street light.

"Holly's right! Anyway, no one knew that we would need help if we didn't tell anyone!" Ron said.

"No one knew..." Hermione said trailing off into deep thought. "Well if no one knew then how did they give the note? How did they wait for us?"

"I don't know! I don't read minds to see who knows what I'm thinking! Does that even make any sense?" Holly exclaimed as they rounded a corner.

"Read minds..." Hermione muttered.

"What are you onto now?" Ron asked.

"Snape knows occlumency and legilimency!" She realised.

"What?" Holly asked, confused as to what that meant.

"He can read minds! Did he make eye contact with you alot?" Hermione asked.

"Well he does anyway!" Holly said. "It's how he scares people. How do you know anyway?"

"It's in his teacher record. The records were all left open on the desk when I went to..."

"The library?" Ron guessed, making Hermione scowl at him.

"So it was Snape who sent the note! But Snape is a death eater!" Holly confirmed.

"That just disproves your point." Ron added.

"No it doesn't! I don't think Snape is truly a death eater! Did you not see him after Dumbledore died?" Hermione asked as if it were a completely natural thing to do!

"Surprisingly not- maybe because I was too busy being sad about it myself! Or maybe you forgot, I watched him die!" Holly snapped, taking Ron and Hermione off guard.

"Sorry! But he wasn't giving out any detentions or house points. He was just different- like he was sad because the person he trusted was gone!" Hermione explained.

"But he let him die! He encouraged it!" Ron pointed out.

"Well if I were working for You- know- who then I wouldn't really want to save the person he wants to kill- it would expose his cover!" Hermione explained.

"But..." Holly tried to argue with her point but couldn't find a suitable reason.

"So I think Snape was trying to help!" Hermione said. "It adds up!"

"Well here's to hoping your right!" Ron agreed as the three made their way through the dark streets of London.

As the sun began to rise, light seeping through the windows of skyscrapers, Holly, Ron and Hermione found themselves outside the enterance to the Leaky cauldron. This was going to be a safe place to go so they would be protected by Voldemort and his death eaters however if they were seen there, Hogwarts would immediately be informed of their whereabouts and then the UK government would be informed and they would get into more trouble than it was worth! This is why they decided to go in- just stay under the invisibility cloak until they got through to an empty room so they could make a proper plan.

All the doors were locked since it was before the bar had opened and Diagon Alley would certainly be closed up. However, upstairs there was a spare room that the three of them ducked into and locked the door to so they could have a proper conversation.

"So what do we actually need to do?" Ron asked, still unsure of what their adventure included.

"I've told you a million times!" Complained Holly. "Are you a goldfish?"

"Holly! You haven't actually told us what we need to do!" Hermione corrected her while also telling her off slightly.

"Yes I have! We need to find horcruxes! Ta-da, the end!" Holly snapped sarcasticly.

"But what do we need to do to find them?" Ron asked, noticing that Holly had taken the locket out of her top and was fiddling with it.

"How am I meant to know? It seems I'm always the last to find out about everything!" She muttered, trying to pry the locket open with her nails.

"Take that off!" Hermione ordered.

"Why? We need to look after it!" Holly asked, holding the horcrux closer to her and covering it with her whole hand.

"Just do it ok!" Hermione said, trying to grab the locket herself. Holly rolled her eyes quickly and took it off over her head. Suddenly, she felt so much better, happier, less affected by the bad things happening in her life! "D'you feel better now?"

"Yeah. Sorry guys!" Holly admitted sheepishly.

"So what's the deal with the locket then?" Ron asked, picking it up and flipping it over in his hand.

"I have no clue. But I think it might have something to do with it containing part of Voldemort's soul." Hermione said, peering into Ron's hands to get a look at it.

"So what should we do about it?" Holly asked as Ron set it down on a small table next to them.

"We could create a rotor- we each wear it for a day or two before passing it on." Hermione suggested. "How long have you been wearing it Holly?"

"Well apart from when I took it off and gave it to Sirius at Grimmauld Place, I was wearing it since just after my hearing." Holly said, filling with a bit of joy at the memory that her Godfather had been set free.

"That's a really long time!" Ron exclaimed. "I'll wear it now!" He added, picking it back up and putting it on over his head.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked and Ron nodded back, slipping the locket into his shirt.

"Yeah, I'll wear it!" Ron said. "I'm sure I'll be fine!" He claimed, unsure of whether he actually would be- but he didn't want to scare anyone (including himself) anymore!

Hermione made sure the door was locked and couldn't be opened without using magic before yawning. Since this was technically a hotel- esc place, no one should open the door if it is properly locked. They decided it was safe to sleep for a while and catch up on the missed night. Holly didn't sleep for very long since she had trouble getting to sleep because of everything going on in her head and also because when she finally did get to sleep, which was considerably faster that when she had the locket on, a light tapping was coming from the window. Hedwig was outside with a letter attatched to her leg. Silently, Holly slid the window open and let her owl in before untying the letter.

 _Holly,_

 _I don't know where you are and I'm hoping Hedwig finds you because I have information. I know that one horcrux is hidden at Hogwarts, I overheard Snape talking about it once. Then there's the one that You have, Dumbledore destroyed one there are two I'm not quite sure about and then the final one is the one you might need help with. One is in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault- don't ask me how I know that I just do! There are two more that I'm not sure on but will try and figure out!_

 _Please come back- I need you!_

Holly had no clue who had written this. She didn't recognise the handwriting and she couldn't think of who would want to help her. She scribbled a note onto the back of the parchment. Hopefully Hedwig would know who to give it to- she had found Holly all the way out in London so getting it back to Hogwarts shouldn't be too hard.

 _I don't know who you are or why your helping me but thank you. I appreciate it and I'm sure the other two do- I don't want to write any names incase this owl is intercepted by someone. Once I return I will pay you back but for now there isn't much I can do!_

Holly sent Hedwig off along with the letter after she had given her owl a treat to keep her going. She knew it wasn't much but it was all she had! As she watched Hadwig fly away, Holly had a longing feeling to follow the owl- she wanted to go back and see everyone at Hogwarts, she wanted to know who had sent the letter.

"Housekeeping!" Shouted a voice as it knocked on the door rather violently. This startled Ron and Hermione awake and the three began to panic slightly. They couldn't be caught now- it was their first proper day!

"Come back later please!" Hermione called in a weird, strained voice and there were footsteps walking away from the room and down the hallway to the next door.

"Guess London is awake then!" Ron yawned, rubbing his eyes and blinking into the light.

"We have information!" Holly said and Ron and Hermione looked slightly confused. "I know where one out if three of the remaining horcruxes are. It's in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault- in Gringotts!" She explained, looking out of the window to see a semi- crowded Diagon Alley.

"And how are we supposed to get that then?" Hermione asked, going to stand with Holly.

"I have no idea!" She admitted, turning around to face away from the window.

"Well at least we know where it is!" Ron pointed out, trying to cheer everyone up.

"We just need to figure out how to destroy it!"


	12. Criminals

For the next few hours, the four of them began devising a plan to attempt the theft of the know horcrux. This lady they knew to be locked up in Azkaban so they shouldn't have to worry about her finding out anytime soon.

"So how do we even begin? We are wanted by the wizarding world, we are all fifteen and sixteen and we have no way of destroying anything we find!" Ron asked.

"Well if we can find them then we're halfway there! All that's left then is finding something to destroy them with and if we find the right thing, we should be able to destroy all of them with one weapon." Hermione explained.

"Do you have any idea of what we could use?" Holly asked and Hermione slowly shook her head.

"You must have something on horcruxes in one of those books you insist on carrying around with you!" Ron said and Hermione did a mental tally of all her books.

"Maybe..." She exclaimed, eagerly peering into her bag. "Accio!" A book came flying out of the back pack and landed on the floor next to her.

 _Dark arts and it's importance_ was typed onto the front cover. Hermione flicked to one of the front pages and scanned her finger down the page. She took a mental note of a page number and flicked somewhere to the back of the book.

"There! Basic information on horcruxes!" She exclaimed proudly, slamming the book onto the little table.

 _Horcrux_

 _A horcrux is the splitting of one's soul. Many witches and wizards have attempted this but have been sent to Azkaban since the process in which to make one involves the murder of another. In order to destroy a horcrux, you must have something either poisonous/ venomous or something made by a powerful creature and has it's magic laced into it. An example would be a goblin made weapon or the fang of a venomous creature. A simple blasing spell would not be efficient enough to destroy a peice of dark magic like this._

"So we need to find something suitable like a goblin made blade or something!" Holly summarised.

"Yeah because they're easy to come by aren't they?" Ron asked, hints of sarcasm in his voice.

"That is the overall problem." Hermione said. "There is one item that springs yo mind though."

"What is it?" Holly asked, scanning her memory for a goblin made object.

"The Sword of Gryffindor! The only issue is that it's gone missing!" Hermione pointed out.

"Where was the last time anyone saw it?" Ron asked.

"Well Holly killed the Basilisk with it three years ago- I haven't been keeping track of it though!" Hermione replied awkwardly.

"Not much to go off 'Mione!" Holly said and Hermione looked down at the ground.

"I know but it's something we can build on over time!" Hermione said optimistically.

"So how do we get the horcrux?" Ron asked.

"Well we can't go as ourselves and there isn't anyone who can go with us so the best bet we've got is polyjuice potion." Hermione suggested.

"And where are we going to get the ingredients for that?" Holly asked, knowing that lacewing flies were not very common at all, nor were they cheap! Hermione didn't reply, she just looked at her bag shyly.

"You have all the ingredients for polyjuice potion in your bag?" Ron asked and Hermione slowly nodded. "You're brilliant you know- a little strange but brilliant!"

"How is carrying ingredients for a potion that disguises yourself when we are technically wanted strange?" She asked with one eyebrow raised.

"I think what Ron is trying to say is that not many people carry round shredded boomslang skin!" Holly said, practically saving Ron from Hermione's wrath.

"Yeah!" Ron wimpered as Hermione relaxed her face.

"Next you're going to tell us that you have a cauldron in there aren't you?" Holly asked, sighing into her hands.

"I don't actually, I didn't have the chance to steal one since Snape was always in his classroom." She replied.

"Well I guess we're going to Diagon Alley!" Ron said, glancing over to the window that he could see all the ice cream coloured shops from.

Since Holly was the smallest and easiest to hide under the invisibility cloak, she was the one who volunteered to go and steal a cauldron. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to carry it while still hiding it under her cloak but she would manage somehow.

As Holly draped the invisibility cloak over herself and slipped out of the Leaky Cauldron and into the streets, the whole place seemed practically silent. There were a few old witches and wizards roaming the streets but almost all of them were either going to one of the various book shops or to a cafe of some description. A few were going into Gringotts but there were none entering the cauldron shop.

After around five minutes of standing around, wondering if anyone would go in, Holly knew that she would just have to try her best- if she got caught then at least no one would be able to see her. As she opened the shop door as little as she possibly could but still allowing herself to slip through, the little bell rung to alert whoever was on duty that there was someone in the shop.

Holly winced as she rushed into a corner of the shop, making sure to stay away from the door. A grumpy middle aged man hobbled through from the storage area.

"Who's there?" He barked and Holly placed her hand over her mouth to hide the sound of her breath. "Come out now!" Holly stayed completely silent- this man wasn't the same person who had sold her the Pewter cauldron when she was eleven! "Stupid kids. Should be kept in school for longer." He grumbled as he hobbled over to the door and flipped over the sign that now read closed before waving his wand and locking the shop up.

 _Shit!_ Holly wondered how she was going to get the cauldron, open the door and run away with it without being seen or heard.

"Alohamora." She whispered under her breath and the lock on the door clicked. She flinched and looked over to the storage area where the miserable man had disappeared to- nothing. Holly scanned the shelves for a suitable cauldron- she saw the one that they used in 2nd year to brew polyjuice. It was on the top shelf so she poked the tip of her wand out of the invisibility cloak.

"Accio." She whispered and the cauldron came flying towards her, making a slight scraping noise as it was dragged across the wooden shelf. As Holly caught it, she let her wand drop on the floor which made a small noise- like if you were to drop a giant pencil on the floor in the middle of an exam. She ducked down onto the floor and wrapped herself around the cauldron so the shopkeeper wouldn't be able to see it.

"Who's in..." He growled but stopped when he saw nothing. Holly almost felt sorry for the man- he must think he's turning insane or skitsophrenic! "What's this?" He asked himself, ducking down next to Holly and picking up the wand on the floor that wasn't covered by the cloak. Holly was half tempted to expose herself and grab her wand back but didn't- if she was caught now then she, along with Ron and Hermione, could potentially be expelled. The man pocketed the wand and muttered something to himself. Holly couldn't tell what he was saying until she heard "Ollivander." The man exited the shop and made his way down the street. As soon as he was out of sight, Holly picked up the cauldron and ran back to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Let me in!" She whispered as she knocked lightly on the door of the room they were staying in. Hermione opened the door and as she did, Holly rushed inside and dropped the cauldron onto the sofa.

"You got it!" Ron exclaimed. "Now we just need to brew it for the next month!" He added, his exitement fading a little.

"I need to go to Ollivanders." Holly said inbetween breaths. "He's got my wand!"

"What?!" Hermione exclaimed. "Why don't you have it?"

"I dropped it, the shopkeeper picked it up and took it to Ollivanders." Holly explained. Ron and Hermione tucked their wands into their pockets and squeezed under the invisibility cloak with Holly. They made sure to lock the door before leaving for the wand shop.

When they arrived, Ollivander was sat sifting through boxes of wands. The little bell above the door rung as they entered. When Ollivander looked up he saw no one.

"James, Sirius I know you're there!" He said, chuckling to himself. Holly whipped the cloak off and looked at the old wand maker.

"My dad is dead!" She whispered as Ron and Hermione tried to pull her back under the cloak.

"Merlin's beard! I do apologise Holly! Your dad used to do that to me. All these years have gone by- I tend to forget some things!" He exclaimed rushing over to Holly. "Hang on- you should be in school!"

"What are you on about- I shouldn't be in school!" Holly said in her most convincing voice.

"Yes you should! There are posters up everywhere!" He exclaimed.

"But I'm helping the wizarding world- I'm destroying Vol..."

"Don't say his name!" Ollivander snapped.

"I'm destroying you- know- who's horcruxes." She said and the old wand maker gave her a stern look.

"How do you know of such dark magic?" He asked in a very serious voice.

"Dumbledore wanted me to..."

"Very wise man Dumbledore was. Very wise yet very foolish!" Ollivander said. "You're far too young to know of such things- I have to hand you in!"

"No! Please don't!" Holly exclaimed. "Ever since Dumbledore died everythings gone wrong! I need to defeat You- know- who. To do that I need my wand."

"Of course! Your wand! Now I know what you are doing in Diagon Alley." Ollivander said softly, immediately ignoring that just moments previously he was going to turn Holly in.

"Can I have it back please?" She asked innocently.

"Absolutely Miss Potter!" He said, picking the wand up from his desk and passing it to Holly. "Just promise me something!"

"Depends what is is." Holly replied.

"Don't go looking for trouble!" He said with no joy or sparkle in his eye, telling Holly that he was deadly serious.

"I'll try my best." Holly said. She knew she couldn't promise since it seemed whatever she did she would get into trouble!

Back at the Leaky Cauldron, Holly, Ron and Hermione began collecting all the ingredients and weighing them out. If they had any chance of getting that horcrux by Christmas then they would need to get the potion started very soon!

"Are we going home for Christmas?" Ron asked while measuring out the lacewing flies.

"We should have a horcrux by then if everything goes to plan." Holly said.

"Don't you think it would be suspicious if we don't?" Hermione asked. "What would your parents do?"

"School probably already told them." Ron said sheepishly. "And dad most likely knows from the Ministry."

"So do we want to go back?" Holly asked, trying to weigh out the pros and cons.

"If we go home then Molly will have someone looking after us 24/7." Hermione sighed.

"So are we staying?" Ron asked.

"We might have to- let's just get this horcrux then decide." Holly suggested.

The trio planned to start the polyjuice that day but the next issue was getting a hair from someone. It would likely have to be a Ministry official since Lestrange was locked up in Azkaban and no one would be getting anywhere near her, nevermind three wanted and underage students! Also, Ministry officials should be allowed access to people's vaults. That is if they were high up such as the Minister for magic. But what were the chances of them getting one of his hairs?

"So we now need to go back to the Ministry?" Ron asked skeptically.

"I guess we do. If there were another way then I'd never go near that place again because now they'll have extra security and everything." Hermione sighed. "But what other choice do we have?"

"We go to Azkaban." Holly said and Ron and Hermione laughed at her. "I'm serious. We won't be able to break into the Ministry again and even if we do then how will we get someone's hair? And there's no guarantee that we'll be let into the vault if we do get the hair." Holly explained.

"Yeah but we're even less likely to get into Azkaban. The place is packed with Dementors!" Ron exclaimed.

"Ron's right. You've got more of a chance of getting through the Ministry than into Azkaban." Hermione agreed. "Anyway the only person who's escaped is Sirius and he's an anima..."

"Then we become animagi!" Holly exclaimed.

"As much as I want to say yes, this is getting way out of hand." Ron said. "I'm not saying you shouldn't- but maybe just not right now."

"We can do it though. Hermione will probably have ingredients that we need to do it and for how we can just ask Sirius." Holly said.

"Holly do you know how long it took Sirius to do it?" Hermione asked.

"No but I know the basics. Anyway if McGonagall could both teach and become an animagus then it can't be too hard." Holly exclaimed.

"But teaching some eleven year olds how to turn a matchstick into a needle and visa versa isn't the same as hunting horcruxes and defeating the Dark Lord." Ron sighed.

"Holly we're best off just becoming someone from the Ministry. Then after all this you can try." Hermione suggested. "Just now isn't the time."

"Well what's the harm in trying?" Holly asked. She didn't see what was wrong with trying to become an animagus because they couldn't do anything for a month since they wouldn't have the polyjuice potion. Hermione and Ron shared a concerned look.

"It's just another thing to think about." Hermione said. "And you need very specific requirements."

"But what else have we got to do this month?" Holly asked.

"We need to figure out where the sword of Gryffindor is." Ron pointed out. "Because without it then we have no hope of destroying any of these things."

"Fine. Where's it likely to be then?" Holly asked, backing down from her idea that she stored in the back of her mind.

"Well wasn't it put in Dumbledore's office?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think it's there anymore. I can't remember seeing it when I went in there around the time of my hearing." Holly replied. "So at least we know it's not there."

"Well doesn't it appear to any deserving Gryffindor?" Ron asked.

"You're right Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. "It does. But how do we know we deserve it?"

"Well we need to do something deserving of it. Last time I needed to fight a basalisk but we don't have one of them." Holly said.

"Well it's got to be somewhere. Swords don't grow on trees or fester in lakes." Ron moaned. Just as he did, many pairs of heavy footsteps came down the corridor. They seemed to be running. Just outside the door, the noise stopped. Holly, Ron and Hermione scrambled to hide under the invisibility cloak and conceal all of their belongings with them. The door burst open and several people wearing long cloaks came in along with the innkeeper.

Two of these people Holly could recognise. They were extremely hard not to spot. Mad- eye Moody pushed through the door followed by the much smaller Nymphadora Tonks who still sported bubblegum pink hair.

"No one in here. If there was they've gone now!" Moody barked as his false eye swivelled to look at the trio.

"Are you sure you were told that someone was on this room Sir?" Someone asked the Innkeeper.

"Yes. Well the maid said she went around doing the housekeeping round and someone replied from this room even though there was no one booked in." The Innkeeper stuttered nervously.

"Well obviously if there was someone in here they've gone now so there isn't much point in staying and talking." Tonks sighed. "Anyway we don't even know if it was Potter, Weasley and Granger. It could have been anyone who didn't have a place to stay for the night."

"Guess we'll have to wait if there are any other signs of their whereabouts." Moody grunted.

"Yes let's just hope it wasn't Black. Nasty bit of work that would be because I still reckon it was him." Said one of the other Aurors.

"Didn't James Potter have a cloak of invisibility at one point. If Black stole that then we're in for a big job- it's been two years already!" Another sighed. It took all of Holly's willpower to not get caught to not burst out if the cloak right then and there and defend Sirius. Hermione and Ron could tell she had been put on edge by the comments about her Godfather since they had both rested a hand on one of her shoulders to try and calm her and also so they would be in prime position for grabbing her incase she tried to run after them.

"His name was cleared but he hasn't been seen since." Tonks explained. "Probably because some people in the Ministry won't announce to the public that he's innocent."

The small huddle of Aurors left the room, closing the door behind them but just before they did, Moody gave the trio a quick glare that said everything he wanted it to. He was trying to warn them- the Ministry was onto them and if they weren't careful they were going to be caught! Very quickly, the footsteps retreated away from the door and back down the corridor where they had originally come from. Holly whipped the cloak off the three of them and helped both Ron and Hermione up.

"He's innocent!" Holly snapped. "It's so obvious! He couldn't hurt anyone he cared about even if it meant something bad for him!"

"We know but he was locked up for twelve years then people were on the look for him for two and he's only just been proven innocent." Hermione explained softly.

"Exactly! He's been proven innocent!" Holly argued.

"It's just the same as with you- know- who. Everyone in the Ministry reckons he's not back. It's pretty corrupt if you ask me." Ron sighed.

"But Sirius shouldn't have to hide anymore! He's innocent, it's been proven but the Ministry is too lazy to do anything about it! Or maybe they don't want to be the people who had the wrong person locked up for twelve years!" She exclaimed, triumph in her voice.

"Holly there's nothing we can do about it now. We are just as wanted to the public as he is." Hermione explained.

"I know. I just want him to be able to go where he wants- like a normal human being!" Holly sighed, the triumph in her voice replacing itself with sadness.

"We all do but that's not how life works sometimes." Ron said, almost trailing his words off in defeat.

A light tapping on the window was heard behind the trio and a different owl was there. This time it wasn't Hedwig. Everyone was hesitant to let the bird in incase it was some sort of trap but eventually, the brown owl shifted on the small windowsill to reveal farmiliar handwriting.

 _Dear Holly, Ron and Hermione,_

 _I don't know where you are but enclosed with this is the part of Dumbledore's will that applies to you. I haven't sent Hedwig since I couldn't find her in the owlery so maybe you have her but also she is quite easy to spot and anyone who knows what they're looking for would be able to get to you and I get the feeling you don't want that._

 _From Professor McGonagall._

Holly was astonished to read this from McGonagall. She had always enforced the rules into students with just a bit of leeway here and there. But now she was full on supporting three 'criminals' and helping them despite it possibly resulting in her losing her job. There were a few more sheets of parchment in the envelope that Holly pulled out and passed to Ron and Hermione.

 _Dear Miss H Potter,_

 _Professor Albus Percivil Wolfric Brian Dumbledore has requested that you are to recieve three items. One of them you shall receive through Professor Minerva McGonagall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and two of which are unable to be presented to you at the current time._

 _The first item which you shall be able to receive is the Golden Snitch that you caught in your first ever quidditch game. Professor Minerva McGonagall shall give this to you at an appropriate time. The second item is the pensive that is in the Headmaster's office in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This will require special care whilst being transported and therefore cannot be sorted out at the current time. The third item is the Chamber of Secrets and all its contents. This is for obvious reasons an unsuitable thing to be given to you however you will own it._

 _Minister for Magic on behalf of Professor A Dumbledore._

 _Written 1st September 1995_

"What did you get?" Ron asked as Holly looked up from her portion of the will.

"He's given me the first snitch I caught, his pensive and the Chamber of Secrets." Holly replied with a puzzled tone of voice that Ron and Hermione's faces reflected perfectly.

"I got his book collection and most prominently _Advanced Charms, Jinxes and Hexes for those studying beyond NEWTs._ " Hermione said furrowing her brow a little more. "He also sent a note saying to not overlook any books based on the age group they are aimed at." She added, her, Holly and Ron's expression becoming even more puzzled by the second.

"Well the Sword of Gryffindor was left to my family and me. And so was this thing called a deluminator." Ron said. "But when are we going to get all this stuff?"

"Guess we'll have to go back to Hogwarts." Hermione sighed. "It's the only way..."


	13. The Return

The trio packed everything up along with the unstarted potion ingredients and cauldron. They couldn't feel the weight of their bags since they had been charmed with a feather- light extention charm. They weren't quite sure how they would apparate to Hogwarts since none of them had actually been taught how and Hermione had splinched Holly and Ron when they were only going a short distance! However, no one else knew where they were and it was too risky to get someone at Diagon Alley to take them since if they were caught then everyone would be in trouble! That's if they didn't turn the three of them in.

Hermione grasped Holly and Ron's hands whilst under the cloak and used all her will to make them teleport. Nothing.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"I can't apparate directly to Hogwarts so we'll have to go through Hogsmede." Hermione replied. She tried again and this time, the trio felt themselves jerk through the air before starting to spin.

When they stopped, after collapsing onto the floor, they recognised the village. Since they were up in Scotland, that was considerably further North than London, it had already begun to Snow- despite it only being early December! Luckily they had been under the invisibility cloak because it was packed in Hogsmede, the darkness of the night sky gave it a more panicked feeling that something bad was happening. None of them were students though- they all seemed to be from the Ministry and they were rapidly and thoroughly searching the small shops and bars.

Without hesitation, Holly, Ron and Hermione began to run out of the streets, leaving almost unrecognisable footprints in the snow, and into Honeydukes. There were no Ministry officials in there but the shopkeeper was sat at the front desk looking both panicked and bored at the same time! This wasn't the time to fling the back door open and draw attention to themselves, even if they were concealed by the cloak. The trio waited silently in the corner of the room, making sure not to touch any of the neatly stacked sweet jars, and looked outside at the fast approaching Aurors.

"Hello Miss! I need to ask you a few quick questions before I search your shop." Said an Auror as he flung the door open therefore knocking over several glass jars that smashed on the floor and let the sweets all spill out.

"As long as you don't cause anymore damage to my shop, then you can ask away!" She replied with an innocent smile.

"Have you seen any mysterious figures lurking around lately?" Asked the Auror who conjoured a notepad and quill.

"You aren't still on about Potter, Weasley and Granger are you?" She asked in a slightly offended tone of voice. "If they wanted to run away from Hogwarts to do something then why would they come to Hogsmede?"

"For your information Miss, no we are not on the lookout for them- we have other teams of Aurors for them. There have been spottings of someone within the Ministry that people would like to keep quiet. So, yes or no- have you seen any suspicious people about?"

"Well you just changed your question there! How am I meant to answer two different questions with one answer?" The shopkeeper asked, her smile getting less innocent by the minute.

"Just answer!" The Auror snapped. "The questions mean the same thing!"

"They don't really. Mysterious and suspicious aren't synonyms nor are lurking and about." She replied. Just after she said that and just before the Aurour was about to hex her, judging by the look on his face, Cornelius Fudge walked into the shop, escorted by another Aurour.

"I'm sorry but I couldn't help but notice that you were giving my Aurour a hard time." He said. "I don't appreciate it when people do that- it makes me look bad you see."

"Well I've given him pretty clear answers... That I don't want him here!" The shopkeeper replied. "I would also appreciate it if you left my shop too Minister- that is unless you want to buy something."

"I could have you arrested..."

"STUPEFY!" Hermione shouted, pointing her wand at the Minister before repeating the spell on the other two.

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, also uncovering himself from the cloak with Holly following shortly.

"What are you doing?" She asked as Hermione summoned three glass tubes and a pair of tweezers from her bag.

"Getting our DNA." She replied as she plucked a hair from each of the Aurors and Fudge.

"What are you three doing in my shop?" Exclaimed the woman behind the counter.

"Coming back to Hogwarts. Don't worry- we'll be gone again soon. Just do us a favour and don't say we're here!" Holly explained before picking her cloak up off the floor.

"D'you mind if we go through this way? Don't really fancy going out there as a wanted person." Ron asked, pointing towards the back door. The lady nodded her head quickly so Holly, Ron and Hermione slipped through the door and made their way down the wooden stairs before climbing through the trapdoor. The passageway was just the same as it always was except now it was alot colder due to the snow!

"Accio Marauders' map." Holly whispered as the trio reached the end of the tunnel. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The map began to fill itself in and Holly could see Fred and George waiting right outside the passage. Just as the trio were pulling the cloak on, their names got closer to Holly, Ron and Hermione's before stopping.

"We know you're here." One of the twins said but no one knew which since it was so dark.

"Lumos." Said the other and the tunnel lit up to reveal Holly, Ron and Hermione's nervous faces.

"Nice to see you back!" Said Fred as he leant against the wall.

"Yeah, are you going to stay because sitting through all of them speeches from the Ministry on how aiding and abetting is illegal gets really boring!" George added.

"We aren't here to stay. We've made almost no progress." Hermione admitted.

"Wow Granger- admitting that you're not doing very well is a big leap for you!" Fred teased and Hermione just scowled at him.

"So if you're not coming back then why have you come back?" George asked.

"We have been left some things in Dumbledore's will. Also there are some things that might help us on our little mission in Hogwarts." Ron explained.

"Wow! Is little Ronniekins on a mission?" Fred asked in a mockingly high pitched voice.

"Shut up!" Ron snapped.

"What's going on here?" Snapped a cold voice that came from someone holding their wand up in the five Gryffindors' faces. George turned around and shone the light from his tourch into the intruder's face.

"What are you doing Malfoy?" Snarled Fred, his joking side gone since he would for sure report the trio to someone like Snape who would never let them out of his sight again!

"I heard people down here and since I'm on Prefect duty, I only thought it necessary to investigate." He explained calmly. "Anyway isn't there anyone else? I could have sworn I heard more people! Or were you two snogging in a dark corner?" He asked the twins, lighting up his own wand and peering around Fred and George.

When his eyes met Holly's, he stopped dead. This girl, along with her two little friends, had been missing for the best part of two months now and then she just turns up in a tunnel leading outside of Hogwarts!

"Potter, Granger, Weasley Jr; you stay here Weasley twins go now." Draco ordered.

"You can't tell us what to do. Your fifteen and we are allowed to use magic outside of school!" George replied.

"Well that doesn't matter because I'm a prefect and we are still on Hogwarts grounds." Draco snapped.

"Not if we go past that line." Fred said.

"Just piss off." Draco complained, gesturing for the twins to leave. Reluctantly, they got up and slowly made their way out of the tunnel. They shot death glares at Draco from behind him before slipping off into the rest of the castle.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Ron practically spat, folding his arms across his chest.

"I want to know where you've been. People don't usually disappear. To me this whole thing reaks of Potter!" He sneered.

"We've been doing something that none of the adults around here seem to be able to do. But why would it concern you?" Hermione snapped.

"Yeah, and what's that then Granger?" Draco asked.

"It's none of your business. Now if you'll excuse us we need to get going." Ron exclaimed. The trio pushed past Draco leaving him alone in the cold tunnel. Before disappearing around the statue, Holly turned to look at Draco- she didn't blame him for reverting to his usual cold self that she had seen in previous years, she had just gone for two months!

"Potter. I know more than you think I do." He whispered before pushing her aside so her back was pressed against the cold wall and walking past her and down the corridor the opposite way to Ron and Hermione.

Holly flicked what Draco had said in her head on the way up to the Gryffindor common room. They didn't have anywhere else to stay so they may as well go somewhere farmiliar. When they reahed the portrait, the fat lady was awake and grumbling something about students being out of bed.

"Periculum autem comr." Hermione whispered. She had the password written down on a small peice of parchment that she then stuffed into her pocket.

"Who's there?" The fat lady asked, unable to see the three students under the invisibility cloak.

"Nevermind who it is. We have the password now let us in!" Hermione hissed but the portrait didn't budge.

"I'm sorry- new rules put in by the headmaster: all students wishing to enter must be seen and approved by me." She replied.

"But I'm a Gryffindor student." Hermione complained. "Hang on... Headmaster? But Professor Dumbledore died!"

"Obviously he died! His portrait is with all the others. Professor Snape has taken his place. Had to fight Umbridge for it but a few unforgivable curses and a handful of death eaters later and he was appointed." The fat lady explained. "Now if you're not willing to show who you are then be off with you!" She added before shutting her eyes and trying to get back to sleep.

Holly looked at Ron and Hermione with a worried expression. If they couldn't get into the common room (even with the password) then how were they going to get anywhere?

"Where do we go now?" Ron asked before whipping his head around at the sound of a depressed meow. The trio's first thought were of Mrs Norris but they quickly realised that the medium sized greyish cat infront of them had squares around her eyes that looked remotely like glasses.

"Professor?" Holly whispered and the cat subtley nodded it's head. Maybe it was something to do with cats that they could always tell where you were- even if you were under the cloak!

The small cat began to prowl away and Holly, Ron and Hermione decided it best to follow her since they knew that they could trust her. When they reached the transfiguration classroom, she transformed from a cat into her regular human self. Holly pulled the cloak off the three of them and rolled it up into a little ball.

"Where have you three been?" She exclaimed with an angry yet anxious look spread across her face.

"We had to leave Professor. Dumbledore wanted me to..."

"Dumbledore set you up for something?" She snapped and Holly slowly nodded her head. "You do know you don't have to do everything dangerous that you are told to do!"

"This is important Professor." Hermione replied calmly.

"And just what is this important task that you told no one about?" McGonagall asked.

"We have to find and destroy all of Vol..."

"Don't say his name!" McGonagall interrupted.

"You- know- who's horcruxes." Ron explained sheepishly.

"You're fifteen! Who thought it was a good idea?" She snapped. "You can't even use magic outside of school!"

"Dumbledore told Holly she had to in order to defeat you- know- who and we couldn't let her go alone!" Hermione replied awkwardly. "And we may or may not have deleted ourselves from the Ministry files."

"So you legally don't exist anymore!" She exclaimed, taking in a sharp breath. No one replied, they didn't even make eye contact.

"Tell me exactly what you've done so far!" McGonagall ordered.

"Well Fred and George helped us escape the first time. Then we ended up in Godric's Hollow. Then we turned up at the graveyard that I was taken to after the Triwizard Tournament before we stayed at Grimmauld Place for a while. After that we got rid of ourselves from Ministry documents. And since then we've been staying at the leaky cauldron." Holly summarised, making sure to leave out every point at which they were in trouble because otherwise McGonagall would never let them leave her sight again. McGonagall had no words as a response to Holly. Never in her life had she been rendered speechless but at that moment, she looked fuming.

"Dumbledore told you that this was a good idea for a few fifth years! If he weren't dead then I'd kill him! And Sirius knows what you're doing but is still letting you!" She snapped, her jaw clenching. "You aren't leaving again tonight. You're going to stay here for now."

"But..."

"No Miss Potter- you are not going out again tonight. Not until I've sorted everything out. Hogwarts isn't the same as it used to be!" McGonagall sighed, looking out of the window. Holly, Ron and Hermione wondered what could have possibly happened in the past few months that could have made such a drastic change to such an amazing place. Then again, with Snape as Headmaster, anything was possible!

McGonagall escorted the trio to the Gryffindor common room and dorms and the portrait let her through after a thorough interrogation since Professors didn't ususally enter the common rooms. That had got to be a safty risk but what was Hogwarts without almost certain death anyway? That's what it seemed to have been like for the past few years anyway!

"The one thing we've managed to maintain is the common room. I made sure of it. So girls are on the right and boys the left. Mr Weasley you may wish to go up with the girls though- I'll lift the enchantment if you want, considering that you've already spent two months living together." McGonagall offered, pulling her wand out and waving it at the stairs leading up to the girls' dorms.

"Thank you Professor. Do you want us to come and see you at any point?" Hemione asked.

"I'm free tomorrow just after lunch. You might want to come under the cloak though- you're still wanted in the eyes of the Ministry and if you've come through Hogsmede then you'll know all about everything." McGonagall replied. "But its good to see you three anyway. Even if not in the best circumstances." She added before gliding out of the room.

When the three of them entered what used to be Holly and Hermione's room at the start of the year, they found it completely empty with the five beds it had contained before. The two trunks were still pushed against their beds and an empty owl cage where Hedwig had sat was still on the bedside table. Holly assumed that Hedwig was in the owlery since that was where she had been when they had first escaped. Holly hoped that Hedwig hadn't been too bored since the only time she had been sent with a letter was not very long ago when the mystery person had sent some clues.

"Ron, do you not want to pass the locket on? You've had it for a while now." Hermione asked.

"I'm fine. I'll keep it for longer." Ron replied. Really he hated wearing the stupid thing but knew that it was no use taking it out on the girls because they hadn't done anything.

"Please pass it on. I'll take it." She said, holding her hand out.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked, untucking the locket from his shirt.

"Yes. And I feel bad if either of you keep it on for too long." Hermione sighed as she clipped the chain together around her neck.

"I was the one asked to do it so really neither of you should have to wear it." Holly mumbled.

"Holly don't. You heard what McGonagall said- she practically hates Dumbledore for this. If she had it her way then she'd do it herself!" Hermione sighed helplessly.

"Don't blame yourself for anything that happens." Ron added caringly. "And anyway you don't have..."

"I do have to. Otherwise no one will do it which means he'll win." Holly said bluntly. "So don't give me that shit!"

"Holly! Don't you dare put all of this on your shoulders! You're fifteen- you aren't even of age and you've been sent to do a task that no one should have to do! If you thought about this before you ran away then maybe you'd realise that you don't need to do this. And if it absolutely comes down to it then you definitely don't need to do it alone!" Hermione snapped, trying to pull Holly back into the reality that she didn't have to do everything she was told.

After this, Holly decided that it was best if she go to sleep. This would be one of the only times she would get a somewhat decent nights sleep in a while since being on the run wasn't the most luxurious thing to do. As she lay in the soft bed covered in red and gold sheets, Holly thought about what Ron and Hermione had said. She knew that she couldn't do it on her own, but she didn't want to put her two best friends in danger.

As she closed her eyes and drifted off into sleep, she saw something. It was just a kind of blurr of colours- mainly black and dark browns- but there was the odd dot of colour added into the mix. Holly wasn't entirely sure what she was meant to be looking at. It all seemed a little strange and random. That was until a hooded figure in a different place with a almost crooked wand in their hand began slowly walking. This figure was crystal clear whereas the background was still blurry so Holly had no clue where this person was.

She woke up, her scar throbbing under her long messy hair and her forehead covered in small beads of sweat. Ron and Hermione weren't awake yet- they didn't even look close to being awake. Holly looked up at the clock on the wall. To be fair, it was 5.30am; not many people willingly wake up that early unless they really can't sleep- especially when they haven't got enough sleep in the past while.

Holly knew she wouldn't get back to sleep now so she just got up, pulled on some clean clothes and grabbed her invisibility cloak before draping it over herself and leaving the dorm room.

Holly krept silently down the stairs so she wouldn't wake any of the other sleeping girls in the rooms adjacent to herself. When she got into the common room, the fireplace was out and and the room was colder than usual. As she walked past, she pointed her wand at the empty fireplace.

"Incendio." She whispered and flames shot out of her wand and set the cold coals on fire.

The corridors were empty and silent. There wasn't any light creeping in through the windows sincr it was now winter and the sun didn't seem to properly rise until 8am. The portraits were still asleep and Holly didn't really care if she woke them up or not so she poked the tip of her wand out of the invisibility cloak and light it up. No one could see her so no one could tell on her being out of bed- besides she hadn't really been a student since the start of the year.

As she wondered through the corridors aimlessly, she noticed a hooded figure stood impatiently whilst staring at the wall. Holly snatched her wand into her chest so the light was concealed by the cloak. The figure turned around to face her but he wasn't looking at her- thank Merlin he was looking through her. But that didn't help much, considering the fact that this man was wearing a silver and black mask and large pointed hood on the jet black robes. This man was a death eater. A death eater in Hogwarts!

Holly clasped her hand to her mouth so the man couldn't hear her heavy, panicked breathing in the silence. He peered into the darkness before apparating away. Apparating! Within Hogwarts! This had to be Snape- there was no other way. First he becomes Headmaster, despite McGonagall being the rightful Headmistress, then death eaters are allowed to apparate in and out of the school!

Holly's mind was racing so much so that she didn't hear the two people walking up behind her. One was being dragged by his shoulder whilst the other had an angry and tense look on his face. Both of them had platinum blond hair. Both were Malfoy's.

"I don't get why I have to! I'm not even seventeen!" Draco complained. It wasn't his usual whiney voice though- he seemed scared this time.

"Well guess what- you'll die if you don't. So will Mother and so will Father." Lucius snapped, continuing to drag Draco up the stairs and getting closer and closer to Holly- who was still safely covered by the cloak.

"But..." Draco whispered before walking into Holly's shoulder, causing him to lose his balance slightly but not quite fall over. Swiftly, Holly changed positions from on the steps to right at the bottom of them so she could still hear what was going on but was no longer a potential target for people to walk into her.

"What's wrong with you?" Lucius snapped.

"Just tripped on a step or something." Draco lied, staring at the place Holly had been just moments before.

"You really didn't inherit many of the Malfoy traits. Wouldn't surprise me if you were more like your blood traitor of a cousin." Lucius snarled. "Also wouldn't surprise me if you'd been raised by Weasleys. Now in!" He added before the corridor plunged into complete darkness and complete silence again...


	14. Gifts

Holly wasn't sure what she had just witnessed but decided that it was safest if she didn't follow them inside. It would just mean that her death wouldn't be as soon and that she would have at least a slim chance of living to at least attempt to kill Voldemort.

Sun seeped through the windows by the time Holly got back to the dorm room that Ron and Hermione were in. They had woken up, probably by the sunlight and were searching everywhere silently.

"Holly!" Ron exclaimed when the door opened but it appeared that no one had entered. She pulled the cloak off her body so she was visible again.

"You're an idiot! I hope you know that!" Hermione sighed. "You know what- I ban you from using that cloak uless you tell us or if it's absolutely necessary."

"You can't do that!" Holly exclaimed.

"I'm the oldest so surely I should be in charge!" Hermione insisted.

"And the most logical." Holly said.

"Exactly!"

"Wait! No- that doesn't help me!"

"Too late!" Hermione smirked before putting the room back together with the wave of her wand.

The trio sat in their dorm room with the door locked so no one would accidentally come across them. Of course they knew that none of the Gryffindors would rat them out but it would just be simpler if no one else knew. When first lesson rolled around, Holly pulled on tge invisibility cloak and went down to the kitchens to get everyone some breakfast. Hopefully there wouldn't be too many people out in the corridors because the last thing she needed was for someone to step on the cloak and reveal her to the whole school.

Luckily, Holly didn't run into anyone on her way down to the kitchens but she would have to reveal herself to all the house elves which might be an issue but to be fair, what death eater or Ministry member would question a house elf for Holly's whereabouts?

Holly tickled the pear in the painting of the fruit bowl and the wall opened up to reveal thousands of wrinkled, pale creatures, only around 3 foot heigh, rushing around and cleaning pots and pans. Out of all the small house elves there, Holly noticed one very kind and farmiliar face. He was very hard to miss because of his colourful clothing. Mainly just socks on different parts of his body where they tended not to belong, for example: his large ears; but there were some less obscure items of clothing.

"Dobby!" She whispered, hoping she wouldn't attract the attention of the other elves. Dobby looked around to see who had called his name but only noticed the other house elves who were getting on with their jobs.

"Did someone call Dobby's name?" He squeaked, his large golf ball eyes scanning the room.

"Dobby it's me!" Holly whispered, pulling the cloak up to reveal her face.

"Holl..."

"Shhh! I shouldn't be here!" Holly whispered.

"Of course! Deepest apologies!" Dobby said, nodding his large head in agreement. "So what can Dobby do for you Miss?"

"It would be lovely if you could get Ron, Hermione and me some breakfast." Holly said and Dobby nodded his head with a smile.

"Dobby would be thrilled to make some breakfast for Ron, Hermione and Holly." He exclaimed before rushing off to make some toast and jam.

About five minutes later, Dobby returned with a huge tray of breakfast floating behind him. He had a giant smile on his face as Holly partiality revealed herself.

"Would you like to come and see Ron and Hermione with me?" Holly asked.

"Dobby would find that most exciting!" The house elf exclaimed, his eyes sparkling.

Holly lead Dobby out of the kitchens and up to Gryffindor Tower by having one of her feet out from under the cloak so the small house elf would always know exactly where she was.

When they reached the dorm room, Ron and Hermione were still half asleep and the door opening scared them. However, they quickly lowered their wands when they noticed the adorable little house elf with a large tray of food in the doorway.

"Hello Dobby!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Miss Hermione! It's wonderful to see you!" Dobby squeaked, bowing his head slightly. "And Master Ron! Amazing to see you too!" He added, placing the heavy tray down onto one of the beds.

"Dobby- you're a free elf. You don't need to call me Master." Ron said with a smile. Dobby smiled back rather shyly as he stood next to the end of the bed.

"Do you not want to sit down?" Holly asked as she gestured towards the two empty beds.

"You are most considerate Holly Potter." He squeaked, taking a seat on the red and gold bed. "Dobby is very grateful!"

All four of them began to polish off the huge tray of food. This was the first time they had eaten properly since Grimmauld Place and even then they didn't want to eat all of Sirius' food because he couldn't just go out of the house to buy more yet. Holly found this infuriating because he had proved himself innocent but the Ministry seemed to be refusing to let him roam freely by announcing to the Wizarding World that he hadn't done anything wrong!

When the end of lunch rolled around, Holly, Ron, Hermione and Dobby gathered under the invisibility cloak and shuffled out of the room. It was going well until they saw Ginny curled up in a ball, against the wall, in the middle of a corridor. They stopped walking for a split second because Ron wanted to know what was wrong with his little sister.

"Ron I get we can trust her but it's better if less people know we're back." Hermione hissed, pushing Ron forwards a bit. However, there was a step just infront of him that he proceeded to trip over and fall to the ground.

"Ron!" Ginny exclaimed after snapping her head up to see what all the noise was. "Why didn't you tell anyone you were back! I've missed you so much!"

"We haven't come back forever." Holly sighed, emerging from the invisibility cloak along with Hermione.

"Why not?" Ginny asked, all the hope seeping out of her face.

"McGonagall has something for us. We had to come and get it." Ron explained.

"But... Can't you stay? Surely you're nearly done." Ginny asked.

"We've barely got a start Gin. We had to hide out at Grimmauld Place for a while and then we couldn't even destroy any of them because we don't have what we need." Hermione said.

"And what exactly is it that you need to destroy?" A voice from behind them snapped. "I have a really good feeling that I know, but I just want to double check!" It was Malfoy.

"We want to destroy your habit of interrupting private conversations!" Holly replied, trying to hide the growing smirk on her face because of how proud of herself she was for thinking of that.

"Maybe your so called _private_ conversations should be in a private place. Not out in the open where any prefect such as myself could overhear." Malfoy suggested.

"Piss off Malfoy. You have no clue what we're on about. All you want is another fake story to tell!" Ron snapped.

"Alright then. But remember, I'm only a few words away from exposing you!" Malfoy replied, putting his arms up like he was surrendering before sweaping down the corridor, his school robes billowing behind him.

"You know, you really can tell that Snape is his favourite Professor. Do any of you three see a resemblance?" Ginny asked but when she turned around, Holly, Ron, Hermione and Dobby were gone.

The four of them had slipped under the cloak again- to be fair it was to protect all of them because if Ginny knew where they were, she could be used by anyone: whether it be the Ministry or Voldemort! When they reached McGonagall's classroom, it was empty apart from the smallish grey cat sat on the desk.

"Professor McGonagall." Holly whispered and the small grey cat became their Transfiguration Professor.

"You can come out. There isn't anyone else here." She replied and the four emerged from the cloak. "You must have got my letter. I wish I had been given some guidance as to why all this is useful to you but it wasn't."

"I get what he was thinking with the sword of Gryffindor. That's the one thing that is obvious." Ron said.

"Of course. The one useful thing that was given to any of you has gone missing!" McGonagall sighed. "The last time it was seen was in the Headmaster's office but even if it still was in there, we don't have a chance of getting it now Snape has become Headmaster." She added, lowering her voice slightly.

"Well I was given the pensive, the Chamber and my first snitch." Holly said, hoping to find something directly useful out of those three.

"I got his book collection. Don't get me wrong I'd love all of them but how much use are they going to be fighting You- Know- Who?" Hermione asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Also the deluminator is useful if we need light. But can't we just use our wands for that?" Ron added.

"I really don't have a clue what he wants you to do with all of these things." McGonagall sighed. Suddenly, a loud crash came from outside. "Under the cloak!" She hissed, morphing into the cat before the door burst open. Two rather grubby looking people practically fell into the room and scanned it. They didn't seem too intelligent so the trio along with the small house elf felt completely safe under the cloak.

"Just the stupid cat again!" One of them grunted.

"Whenever I hear that woman talking, that cat pops up out of nowhere!" Grumbled the other as the door slammed behind them. McGonagall transformed from a cat into herself when sbe was sure they had gone. Her lips were pursed tightly and she seemed a little more tense than usual.

"Who were they?" Holly asked, pulling the cloak off Ron, Hermione, Dobby and herself.

"They are two of the most stupid people to walk this planet. They're from You- Know- Who's side. That stupid Delores still refuses to admit that he's back though! Pretty pointless if you ask me- just because the Ministry hasn't announced it yet doesn't mean that they haven't completely taken over the school!" McGonagall exclaimed, begining to ramble on a bit which wasn't normal for her to do.

"Are you alright Professor?" Hermione asked, slowly approaching her.

"They killed a first year. Them and Umbridge!" McGonagall snapped. "She couldn't handle the cruciartus curse so she went insane and jumped off the Astronomy Tower!"

The room fell silent. The people in the school were crazy! Surely this wasn't true. Surely three fully grown adults hadn't made an eleven year old kill themselves!

"I suppose you want your things then, don't you?" McGonagall said eventually. She ducked into the office at the back of the classroom. When she came out, She was carrying a small cylindrical object, the shiny snitch and floating behind her was a large collection of books- there must have been about 50 there. Hermione opened up her backpack and let the piles upon piles of books stack up in it. Luckily, it didn't effect the weight of the bag because there was a featherlight extension charm on her bag that Ginny had learned how to do rather than just a regular one.

"Thank you Professor!" Hermione said, swinging the bag onto her back again.

"Your snitch." McGonagall said, giving Holly the tiny golden ball that was wrapped up in a small square of cloth. "And the deluminator." She added, passing Ron the cylindrical object. He clicked the small button on it and the light from the chandelier above him was sucked into it. When he clicked it again, the ball of light shot back out of the end and into the chandelier again.

"Thank you so much Professor!" Ron exclaimed. "I'm sure there is some use to this." He added reassuringly.

"You three are more than welcome to go down to the Chamber to see if there is anything in there that Dumbledore wanted to leave you." McGonagall replied. "But it was good to see you three and of course yo too Dobby. Even if it was only for a short time."

"It was good to see you aswell." Holly said before she pulled the invisibility cloak over the four of them.

On the second floor, there were portraits that had been boarded up so the people couldn't see out of them. Holly, Ron, Hermione and Dobby could only hear the faint complaints and annoyed grumbling sounds from the other side of the wooden planks. The door to the girls bathroom wouldn't open when they reached it.

"Alohamora." Holly whispered and the door opened. The place was silent. Moaning Myrtle would usually be waiting for an unsuspecting first year girl to walk in before she began shrieking but this time she wasn't making a sound. Come to think of it, none of them had seen any of the ghosts whatsoever since they had returned.

Holly approached the sinks in the center of the bathroom and spoke some parceltounge. The old geometric structure opened up and a large tunnel appeared. From what the three of them could see, it was overgrown with mossy plants that thrived in dark, dank places- like the ones you tend to find in caves.

"Be careful." Hermione warned.

"Why? We've jumped down here before." Ron asked, standing on the edge.

"That was three years ago. And you don't know what had grown in it before that because the Basilisk had been up and down it throughout the year." Hermione explained. "Lumos." They couldn't see the bottom of the tunnel with the small glow of Hermione's wand.

"Lumos Maxima!" Holly said, still couldn't quite see the bottom though. Ron rummaged around his bag and pulled out a small bag filled with around 10 knuts. He dropped it down the hole in the floor. It kept falling for a while until it made the clatter you would expect bronze to make against cold stone.

"Safe." He confirmed. "Well, as safe as it possibly could be."

Holly began to slide down the tunnel with Dobby just next to her, it was more free falling than sliding until she reached the end where it began to curve and eventually she was thrown out the end. Not long after she reached the bottom, Hermione came flying down the tube and finally Ron. He picked up the small bag of knuts and stuffed them into his bag. With their wands lit, the four of them shuffled their way into the Chamber. When they reached the snake door, Holly spoke some more parcel tounge and the seven snakes unlocked. The heavy door swung open to reveal the main bit of the Chamber.

The large snake carcus was half submerged in water and was almost fully decayed. Merely a thin layer of flesh still hung onto the bones in places. There was nothing else too special about the Chamber that hadn't been there before. There were still the old stone snake heads lining the walls and the water covered floors were still slippery.

"Do you reckon there's anything in the tunnels?" Hermione asked, noticing a hole in the wall.

"I doubt it but we can check." Holly replied, making sure to avoid the deep pool of water surrounding the tunnel entrance. They weaved their way through the twisting passageways and eventually met up in the main part of the Chamber empty handed.

"Nothing." Ron sighed. "So unless dead snake bones are going to help us find horcruxes then we should probably leave.

"Avada Kadavra!" Yelled a voice from across the Chamber. A flash of bright green light barely missed Hermione as she jumped backwards. Holly, Ron and Hermione drew their wands and began throwing hexes and jinxes at their attacker in hopes of getting them. They hadn't been able to catch a glimpse of them yet so they didn't know who they were fighting but it wouldn't be anyone on their side since people didn't tend to throw the killing curse around for no reason.

The person finally revealed themselves. It was one of the people who had been listening in at McGonagall's door. Ron managed to hit him with a stunning spell. They obviously weren't very strong themselves since one stunning spell was enough to knock them out.

"Obliviate." Hermione said, pointing her wand at the unconscious man's face. His memory was fully wiped so he would have no recollection of seeing the trio there.

"Why is it whenever we're down here, someone's memory ends up getting wiped?" Holly asked as she took the man's wand.

"Must be something about this place." Ron joked.

"Where's Dobby? We need to go now. If one person managed to get down here it's only a matter of time before other people find us." Hermione asked, quickly looking around. Holly turned around and immediately saw the small elf laying on the floor.

"Dobbby!" Holly whispered so quietly that it essentially came out as a breath. She ran across the wet floor and slipped just as she reached Dobby's almost lifeless body. She crawled the last few feet and rolled the tiny elf onto his back. The large golf- ball eyes were staring up at the ceiling. Holly knew that house elves were powerful, how else could Dobby have apparated in and out of Hogwarts when Holly was lying in the hospital wing in her second year? But she knew deep down that the elf wouldn't make this.

"Dobby. Stay with me. Please." She whispered, scooping the elf up into her arms.

"Holly Potter!" The small elf squeaked. "Dobby is ever so happy with how kindly you have treated him."

"No Dobby! Please!"

"Stay happy Holly Potter. Be happy with your friends."

"NO!"

"Dobby is happy. Dobby is happy that he died with his friends near him. Dobby is happy that he died a free elf!"

Tear drops fell onto the house elf's face. Holly squeezed her eyes shut but carried on sobbing. The little sock she had given him that day after she killed the Basilisk was clenched in Dobby's hand. The tiny elf breathed his last breath and his grip loosened. The sock fell out of his hand and onto Holly's lap.

"Holly we need to go!" Ron sighed softly. "You can bring Dobby if you want."

Holly stood up, the lifeless elf limp in her arms. She made her way to the snake door and opened it.

"I'll be right back!" Hermione exclaimed, running back into the Chamber before the door closed. Holly and Ron waited for her with their wands ready incase anyone else were to come in. When Hermione returned, she was tucking a large Basilisk fang into her bag.

"And why do we need this?" Ron asked.

"Venom like this can destroy horcruxes." Hermione said proudly as the trio made their way to the tube that they had entered through.

"Accendio." Holly whispered and she shot up and out of the hole where the sinks had been. She still had Dobby in her arms and when Ron and Hermione joined her in the girls' bathroom she pulled the invisibility cloak out from her bag and draped it over them. They went outside to Hagrid's hut. They didn't even know if he was still there- but they hoped he was because he was one of the only people who could help them burry the dead elf.

"Who's there?" Hagrid asked, pointing his crossbow right at the trio's faces.

"Hagrid it's us! Can we come in?" Ron asked and a giant smile spread across the half giant's face.

The door swung closed behind them and Holly pulled the cloak off with her one free hand. Her face seemed to have lost all colour and she was shaking slightly.

"They killed him." She whispered, holding out the dead house elf.

"Who did?" Hagrid exclaimed, taking the house elf, who was only the size of Hagrid's hand.

"We don't know who it was but it was one of the people who tortured a first year." Hermione explained.

"Oh right!" Hagrid replied darkly. "I avoid all of them so I don't really know any of their names either."

"Can you help us burry him?" Holly asked, her lip quivering slightly.

"Of course I will. I'd do anything for you three troublemakers!" Hagrid exclaimed with a smile. It was almost as if Holly, Ron and Hermione had never left. Hagrid was still unconditionally kind to all three of them.

They spent the remainder of the afternoon burrying the house elf in the forbidden forest. They had to avoid any dangerous creatures in there but it was definitely easier than hiding from everyone at Hogwarts! After giving Dobby the funeral he deserved, all of them leaving a sock out for him, Holly, Ron and Hermione hid away in Hagrid's hut until nightfall. They sipped on large mugs of strong tea and caught up like they used to every week in their first year. However it wasn't to last- when it reached 10pm, the trio knew that they had to leave soon.

The Gryffindor common room was empty. Everyone was hiding away in their dorm rooms, either sad or scared- probably both!

When Holly, Ron and Hermione had gathered all the things that they had unpacked into the room the previous night, they yet again slipped under the cloak and went down the stairs.

When they reached the third floor, a small girl ran infront of them to stop them from leaving.

"Ginny! What are you doing?" Ron hissed as the girl pulled the cloak off them.

"Either don't leave or let me come!" She replied stubbornly.

"Ginny you're fourteen, you have the trace on you and you're my little sister! No!" Ron exclaimed.

"And you're my older brother and two of my best friends!" Ginny replied. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Ginny we have to go! We don't have a choice. Dumbledore told us to do this. He left us things in his will to help us." Holly explained. "You need to stay. I get it's horrible here now but I promise you it's better here than it is out there when you're wanted!"

"But..."

"I'VE FOUND THEM! I'VE FOUND THEM!" Yelled a voice from behind Ginny. Flashes of red light blasted over their heads as they ducked down and scuttled behind the statue of Gunhilda of Gorsemoor. They ran to the line that signified where the Hogwarts grounds ended and Hogsmede began.

"Diagon Alley in three, two, one!" Hermione hissed. Ron grabbed Ginny and held onto Hermione's arm, as did Holly. They apparated to the Wizarding street in London. It was completely abandoned apart from them. Shops were boarded up for the night and the whole street was silent.

A loud crack was heard around the corner and a small group of death eaters emerged from around the corner. All four of them raised their wands and began protecting themselves from the spells being thrown at them. They ducked down an alleyway to catch their breath.

"Ginny, do you get why we don't want you to come yet?" Ron asked as they listened out for the confused death eaters to figure out where they had dissappeared to.

"Surely it's better if you have more people to fight with you!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Shush!" Hissed Holly, clapping her hands over each of the Weasley's mouths. But she wasn't quick enough. Several death eaters chased them down the alleyway. They fought them off well until they reached a dead end.

Lucius Malfoy emerged from the small crowd, stopping the spells from being fired.

"We are naughty, aren't we? Skipping school!" He sneered, looking each of them up and down. "Take them to Malfoy Manor!" He added without a second thought.

A different person grabbed each of them and they disapparated from Diagon Alley to Malfoy Manor. Immediately, they were thrown and locked in a cellar with rats and spiders hiding in the corners.

"We'll deal with you one by one!" Lucius hissed, grabbing Ginny and pulling her out of the mini prison. "Ladies first!" He snarled, dragging her up the stairs.

The only thing any of them could hear was the fourteen year old screaming for dear life and Ron bellowing about how it was going to be alright as soon as he killed everyone up there.

Ginny's screams weakened into sobbing. She kept repeating the same words:

"I don't know where they've been! I don't know what they're doing!" She repeated over and over again between her sobs.

"I think you're lying!" Snapped one of the death eaters. "Do you know what happens to people who lie?" The swish of a blade was heard from the dungeon and the screams started again. That was until they abruptly stopped, plunging the Manor house into silence...


	15. Betrayal

"Ginny..." Ron whispered, unable to make a louder noise at that point. "No no no no!!"

"Ron..."

"GINNY!" He yelled, desparately sticking his arms through the bars of the gate and clawing to get out.

"With all the racket going on down here, one would have thought someone had died." Lucius snarled as he came into sight around the corner.

"Give her back!" Ron yelled, collapsing to the floor. "Give her back now!"

"With pleasure!" Lucius sneered, beckoning for someone to bring him the girl. Someone whom Holly vaguely recognised had the small ginger girl in his arms. Lucius dragged her by the arm and tossed her carelessly down the steps. Holly, Ron and Hermione's throats went dry. They could hardly breath!

Ginny had a silver blade sicking into her throat but she also had several stab wounds that were pouring thick red blood in her chest. They left huge patches on her white school shirt and were hardly recognisable against her scarlet tie- apart from the thin yellow stripes running across it. As her heart beat for the very last time, a large amount of blood spurted out of one of the deep gashes in her chest, splattering her face with the scarlet liquid.

"YOU FUCKING MONSTER!" Ron screamed, grabbing onto the bars. "THAT'S MY SISTER!"

"Oh, that fact seemed to have slipped my mind. Maybe I shall have to tell your family then." Lucius offered and a look of fear struck across the trio's faces. "Malum, take her to the Burrow. That's where these poor excuses of a pure blood family live!"

The death eater glided down the stairs and grabbed Ginny's wrist before disapparating. Ron was silent, he physically couldn't make any noise.

"Now take that as a warning to both of you!" Lucius snarled. "We'll take the Potter girl and you two can go free. Otherwise you'll end up like the weasel!"

Lucius opened the gate and climbed over Ron before grabbing Holly. She would have cooperated in order to save her friends but she was taken by surprise when the man grabbed her tiny waist and dragged her up the stairs.

There weren't actually many people upstairs. Draco's mother was there and of course Lucius; then there was one of the two people who had come into McGonagall's classroom earlier.

"Narcissa! Get Draco for us. He can see what it means to be one of us." Lucius hissed and the platinum blonde woman disapparated. "Now. Finally, we have caught the Potter girl. Who should we turn you in to first? Do we give you to the Ministry and earn their trust or do we give you to the Dark Lord first and let him deal with you?"

"I don't care. Just as long as you make a decision quickly- I tend to get bored waiting around!" Holly replied calmly.

"You filthy half- blood!" Lucius snarled. "I think we may just have to turn you a little crazy first, just while we're waiting for your classmate to arrive!"

Suddenly, the grand double doors were flung open. A silhouetted figure was stood in the doorway. Holly assumed she was a woman because of the long black hair that surrounded the figure's head. As she made her way into the room more, Holly saw her face and had an pretty good idea of who she was.

"Hello Lucius!" She snarled sweetly. "I'm back!"

"Bellatrix Lestrange?" Lucius exclaimed, confirming Holly's suspicions.

"So now you remember I exist!" She pouted, resting her head on Lucius' shoulder and sticking her bottom lip out. "I was rotting in that cell for nearly fifteen years and no one came to help me!"

"If I could then I would have!" Lucius said.

"LIAR!" She snapped. "The Dark Lord himself had to rescue me! And now he's out to find Potter."

"We..."

"SILENCE! Where is Cissy? I wish to speak with my sister!"

"She has gone to get Draco. Our son."

"Why? Shouldn't he be learning all the dark things Hogwarts has to offer?" Bellatrix asked, walking to the edge of the room and beginning to pick things up and look at them.

"We found Potter." Lucius said finally, pointing towards Holly who had shuffled into a dark corner.

"WHAT! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?" Bellatrix screamed, throwing the small picture of the Malfoys across the room.

"I did try..."

"So this is little baby Potter. The girl who defeated almost all I had in the world!" Bellatrix said with an eerily calm voice. "Did you know that I'm very good with the cruciartus curse? That's why I was locked in Azkaban, for fifteen years, and no one came to rescue me!"

Holly couldn't let out more than a wimper as the woman dressed in all black clothing with crazy hair and an evil smile walked slowly towards her. A loud crack came from behind her and Draco and Narcissa apparated into the house.

"Bella..."

"Cissy! How wonderful it is to see you!" Bellatrix giggled. "And this must be Draco. He really has grown up since I last saw him- FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!"

"No one wanted you back more than I did but we didn't have a choice." Narcissa said.

" _We didn't have a choice!_ " Bellatrix mocked, pulling Draco's hair upwards slightly so his face was lit up by the lights on the chandelier. "You would have saved me Draco wouldn't you?"

"Of course." He whispered nervously.

"Liar!" She snapped, slapping Draco in the face. "This family is a bunch of liars! He's never going to be a true death eater! None of you will! You all gave up on Voldemort the moment Holly Potter got that scar!" She yelled, dragging Holly up off the floor by her long black hair.

"Please." She whispered, holding her scalp in fear of her hair being torn out.

"She's begging! Holly Potter is begging!" Bellatrix screeched. "How about you earn your freedom. If you can beat me in a duel then you can go!"

"But..."

"CRUCIO!" She yelled and Holly tensed her body up before collapsing to the floor. She lay there, squirming and praying for it to stop.

"Stop it!" Someone yelled and the room went silent. Everyone turned to look at Draco who had his wand in his hand.

"What did you just say?" Bellatrix yelled. "Did you just defend Potter? You filthy traitor! Cru..."

"Expelliarmus!"

The crooked wand flew out of Lestrange's hand and Holly caught it in her weak hands. Draco signalled for Holly to go down to the cellar where he somehow knew Ron and Hermione were trapped.

"Alohamora." He said, pointing his wand at the gate and he flung it open. "Wands."

"What are you doing you git?" Ron asked, furious at the Malfoys for killing his sister.

"Saving your life. I assume you can apparate." Draco replied as Hermione held Ron back from attacking him.

"I can." She replied.

"Go to Godric's Hollow. There's something there you'll need." He said, grabbing Holly and disapparating.

Merely seconds after arriving at her birthplace, Ron and Hermione turned up infront of her eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" Holly snapped.

"Shut up!" Draco hissed. "It's the middle of the night. Do you want to wake the whole town up?"

"Why are we here?" Hermione asked, her arm around Ron to hold him back still.

"Come down here. I don't think this is something the whole town should hear." He whispered in reponse, leading the trio down a small alleyway.

"Why should we trust you? How do you know that there aren't a bunch of death eaters down there?" Ron asked, his grip on his wand tightening.

"Do you really think that I've just betrayed my family and almost attacked my insane Aunt just to recapture you?" Draco snarled. "And if you don't believe me- Lumos!" His wand lit up and there wasn't anyone down the dark alleyway.

"Are tou insane?" Hermione exclaimed. "You still have the trace on you!"

"My father works for the Ministry. The moment You- Know- Who returned he had the trace off me so I could do whatever I was asked." Malfoy replied, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Now if everyone is satisfied with their safety then let's continue."

The trio hesitantly followed Malfoy and still to their surprise, even after being shown the empty alleyway, weren't attacked.

"Told you so."

"What do you want to tell us?" Holly asked, trying her best to ignore the fact that he was Malfoy.

"The Dark Lord has horcruxes- I'm aure you know about them because the Mudblood has one around her neck."

"I hit you in third year. You got away lucky then. Don't think I won't hex you now; or maybe even give you in!" Hermione snapped.

"Well anyway- from what I've been told, there are six. You've got one there. The diary my father gave the girl in our second year was another. Then correct me if I'm wrong but Dumbledore got rid of one; a ring of some sort I think."

"Yeah Ferret- _the girl_ is my sister! The one your precious father just murdered!" Ron yelled.

"Don't shout! You'll attract attention!" Draco hissed, pointing his wand at Ron's face. "I will shut you up if I need to."

"Is that all of them you know?" Hermione asked, holding onto Ron's wand so he didn't attack Draco.

"There's one more I know. A snake, it's more recent so not many people know she exists. You- Know- Who always keeps her close by." He replied.

" _You- Know- Who_? Draco _my father is a death eater_ Malfoy is saying You- Know- Who?" Ron snapped.

"I know things you don't. And I'll have you know that they can keep track of who says his name. Then they'll hunt you down and turn you in. I'm not about to risk anything here." Draco replied.

"So like a taboo." Holly said, trying to ease the tension between the two boys.

"Yes exactly. So just do us all a favour and don't say his name." Draco replied. "So do any of you have any way of destroying these things?"

"Well Ron was left the sword of Gryffindor but we dont have it and we also collected a Basilisk fang from the Chamber of Secrets." Hermione explained. "Is that going to be any help?"

"Didn't the book say it would work?" Holly asked.

"That's great. Now we need to collect something from that blown up building and get out of here." Draco said, pointing to the house with a huge whole in it. "I tried to send you here before but if I'm not mistaken, you were attacked before you could find anything."

"You did that?" Holly asked and Draco nodded shyly. "Thanks!"

When they reached it, Holly stopped and stared for a few moments. She had been in there before but she still didn't like it. It was her old home, but it was ruined and she barely remembered it. The only things she did remember were her sitting in her crib and seeing that flash of green then her mum, lifeless on the floor.

"Hurry up then! We can be seen you know!" Draco hissed.

"That's where her parents died." Hermione whispered and Draco fell silent. Had he known this, he may have been a little less insensitive but it was too late to back peddle now- a single tear rolled down Holly's cheek as she pushed past Draco and into the wrecked house.

This time there was no rat sat waiting for them and there didn't seem to be anyone inside.

"Homenum revelio." Hermione whispered. Nothing happened.

"Safe." Ron confirmed as he entered the house behind Hermione.

"Pot... Holly I didn't mean too..." Draco muttered as he shut the door behind him.

"It's fine. You didn't know. Just drop it." Holly replied, subtley wiping the tear from her cheek. "What were we here for?"

"There's a horcrux here. It'll be moved soon. You- Know- Who does that as much as he can to avoid people from finding them. But that isn't too often since he's been dead for fourteen years." Draco explained. "I don't know what it is but there was something about him making one here just before he died."

"What does he like- that he would potentially turn into a horcrux?" Hermione asked.

"You're making it sound like we're going present shopping Granger."

"So you call Hermione _Granger_ but you call Holly _Holly_." Ron said, with a pained yet strangly evil smirk.

"Well guess what: I didn't just drag Granger into the place she nearly died!" Draco hissed.

"So now you care about people's feelings?"

"It may not be apparent to you Weasel, but I'm not a heartless git!" Draco snapped. "And I'm not completely evil all the time!"

Everyone began searching the house for something remotely horcrux- like. They turned every room upside down and found nothing. By then, it was dusk and the sun was begining to rise, drowning the nursery room with light.

"Do you have your invisibility cloak?" Hermione asked and Holly nodded before getting it out of the bag that hadn't even been taken off her. She guessed that the death eaters were so confident with their capture that they didn't bother with precautions such as taking anything that could pose as a possible threat!

Holly tried to get all of them covered with the cloak however, it was a bit tight with three of them- nevermind four.

"You three go under the cloak- I'm not the wanted one." Draco said, trying to cover Holly, Ron and Hermione with the silky material.

"No! You won't be able to see where we are!" Holly said.

"That is the general idea of the cloak yes!"

"Either we all go under the cloak or none of us do! Or it's you three- I was sent to do this and I don't want any of you to get hurt." Holly insisted.

"Then I guess it's none of us." Ron sighed and Holly stuffed the cloak back into her bag.

"So where to now?" Hermione asked. "Do you have any more leeds?"

"So you're going to ask him? The one who brought us back here when there was nothing!" Ron asked skeptically.

"Well he knows more than I do! Or do you have any ideas?" Hermione snapped, no one replied. "That's what I thought!"

"As I already told you, there's one in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. And before you ask- yes that was me." Draco said. "So I think that's the best place to go next. Can we all apparate without dying?"

"Hermione can. But neither of us can." Holly replied. "Can you?"

"Well considering I got you out of Malfoy Manor, I'd say I'm decent at apparating. I was taught over the summer by some of the more academically superior death eaters- not that there are many- but just so I was being taught how to apparate and not how to split myself into tiny chuncks. Can you teach Weasel since we're not exactly civil with one another yet?" He asked Hermione who nodded and took him out into the corridor so him and Holly wouldn't apparate into one another at any point.

"Abscondam." Draco said, hiding himself and Holly from any passers by, by charming the house to blend in with all the others.

"So how am I meant to do this without splitting myself in half?" Holly asked.

"It might take a while but as long as you keep practicing, it'll be easy." Draco said reassuringly. "I want you to focus on that crib and will yourself to move towards it." He added, pointing at the rotting wood in the corner that somewhat resembled a babies crib.

Holly squeezed her eyes shut before staring intently at the crib she repeated over and over in her head _Move. Move now. Towards the crib- it's not that difficult._ She must have been doing that for around 30 seconds before she began to feel dizzy and she fell over, smashing the fragile wood underneath her tiny body.

"Did I do it?" She asked before noticing her left leg was almost completely detatched.

"Don't look at it! It'll make it hurt more!" Draco said, pulling his wand out of his pocket and pointing it at the wound. He muttered some sort of spell and Holly's leg seemer to just reattach itself without any issues.

"How..."

"Vulnus sanandum." He replied with a kind smile before helping Holly up off the floor. "You might just want to take it easy on that leg."

"I intend to!" Holly replied. "Do I try again?"

"If you want. I'm not a medical expert so I don't know what's good and bad for you. But I'm going to assume that you'll be fine." Draco replied.

Holly focused on the broken crib for about a minute before apparating. Luckily this time she didn't lose any body parts however, if she was being chased by a group of angry death eaters, she wouldn't have a minute to lose!

"Well done. You're still in one peice but you need to be a bit quicker." Draco said reassuringly. "Just try and get it in jumps of five or ten seconds. Until you're down to immediate reactions."

Holly started off with just under a minute, then after a few trys got it down to 50 seconds, then 45, then 30, then 20, then 15, then 10, then 5, then 4, then 3, then 2, then 1 and finally the moment she thought about it.

"You're a quick learner." Draco said, nodding his head as if to say he was impressed. "That took me all summer but you've got it in a few hours."

Holly smiled proudly to herself before she heard Hermione shouting at Ron.

"It's really very simple! All you do is focus and apparate! I don't see why you keep splinching yourself!" She snapped.

"Easy enough for you to say- you're not the one who is doing this for the first time in some half destroyed house!" Ron replied. They were stood in the corridor outside the room Holly and Draco were in and Hermione had her head rested on the wall in annoyance.

"Hermione, give me the locket!" Holly ordered, holding her hand out infront of her.

"Holly I'm fine- just go back to practising!" She replied, pushing her forehead off of the wall and leaning on the other side of the corridor.

"I can do it. Now give me the locket!" Holly insisted and Hermione handed it over reluctantly. "Better?"

"Yeah- much. Sorry Ron, I shouldn't have got angry. There really wasn't a reason to!" Hermione sighed, taking in a few deep breaths. Holly clipped the locket around her neck and immediately felt a little more tense. She went back into the nursery to practise apparating more. She practiced for another hour and a half before Ron and Hermione came in saying that they pretty much had it.

"So when do we go?" Holly asked.

"Well can we even get into her vault?" Ron asked skeptically.

"I can- I'm family." Draco claimed. "Then you three can go under that cloak."

"Are you sure? And will there be any death eaters around because they're everywhere at Hogwarts!" Hermione asked anxiously.

"There won't be death eaters. They wouldn't go anywhere near somewhere where they could be arrested unless it had direct benifits." Draco explained. "And Diagon Alley is always packed with witches and wizards who would recognise a murderer."

"Fair enough. But will they catch you because you are a student?" Holly said.

"I've heard that Granger is good with charms, I'm sure she has something up her sleeve." Draco replied, raising one eyebrow at Hermione who immediately rushed to her bag and pulled out Dumbledore's copy of _Advanced Charms_ and flicked through the pages until she found the one that said _disguises_.

"How disguised do you want to be?" She asked.

"Well I still need to look like a Malfoy so maybe just make me look a bit older." Draco replied.

"Good because that's all I'm going to be able to do- more complex transformations can require years of work!"

She skimmed the section on simple age changes before pointing her wand at Draco's face.

"Senex respice." She mumbled and the fifteen year old seemed to double in age.

"You do know how to reverse this don't you?" Draco exclaimed, realising that it was all good if he could disguise himself but if he couldn't change back then it wouldn't be too much help at all!

"Yes it says it here. It also says the charms will wear off after a month anyway." Hermione said, skimming over the page again.

"Should we get under the cloak then?" Holly asked, reaching for her bag.

"Yeah then we need to apparate to Diagon Alley. Just follow me closely from there to avoid detection." Draco explained as if it was going to be the most simple thing they had ever done.

A loud crack came from where Draco had once stood and he had gone. Holly, Ron and Hermione slipped under the cloak before apparating away together, with Hermione taking them since she was the best out of the trio.

Diagon Alley was relatively crowded however, all three of them had seen it more busy. People were looking around to see who had apparated but saw no one so they carried on walking. They were down a side alley and they spotted Draco who had also heard the crack and had begun walking towards Gringotts. He didn't have his own wand in his hand but instead, he had Bellatrix's incase he needed her wand to get into her vault.

The trio ran to catch up with him and managed not to fall over the silky material of the invisibility cloak. They made it all the way to Gringotts without being noticed or walked into by any members of the public. It was rather empty inside ththe bank and Draco walked right up to one of the goblins.

"Excuse me!" He said in a tone of voice which suggested he was superior to the small creatures working there.

"Lucius Malfoy!" The goblin exclaimed. "How young you're looking today!" The comment about Draco being his father threw him off a little but he quickly regained composure.

"I came here to get something done, not to be flattered by such an inferior creature like yourself." He snapped, deeply offending the goblin. "Now I wish to enter Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. I have her wand if you need proof of permission."

The goblin took the wand from Draco's hand and inspected it for a while before getting down off of his desk.

"Follow me then Mr Malfoy." He said, making his way over to the door where a cart was waiting for them.

Holly, Ron and Hermione had to be very careful getting into the cart since they didn't want to rock it too much. Once Draco said so, the goblin set the cart off along the track and it made a rattling noise as it sped off into the maze of vaults.

It had been around five minutes when a large waterfall came into sight. When they passed through it, the cart stopped dead.

"What's going on here?" The goblin muttered before tapping the cart three times. "My apologies Mr Malfoy- I haven't a clue why it stopped us!"

When the cart reached Bellatrix's vault, it stopped still. Everyone piled out and the goblin approached the door. He traced his spindly finger down the door and it opened up to reveal mountains of gold.

"You may enter the vault." He announced, stepping to the side to allow Draco to pass through and into the glittering room.

"What are we looking for?" Holly asked, scanning the room for something that screamed _horcrux_.

"Well that locket belonged to Salazar Slytherin. I saw a picture of him wearing it in the Slytherin common room. So my best bet is something from one of the other founders." Draco replied.

"So something that belonged to Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. That'll be easy won't it!" Muttered Ron as he slipped out from under the cloak.

They were in there for ages trying to find something remotely related to one of the fouders of Hogwarts.

"Hufflepuff's animal is a badger isn't it?" Hermione checked, noticing something with the creature etched into it.

"Yeah, then Ravenclaw is an eagle and Gryffindor is a lion." Ron replied.

"Is that a badger?" She asked, pointing to a fragile looking cup at the top of a pile of gold.

"Don't ask me- I have the worst eyesight out of all of us." Holly said.

"I think it is." Draco replied, squinting at the cup.

"Shall we get that?" Hermione suggested.

"No harm in trying it." Ron said, shrugging his shoulders.

"I say lightest person goes up." Draco said before turning to Holly. "I think that's you."

"It's definitely me." The small girl responded before begining the climb up the tower of gold. It took her a while because she kept slipping on the shiny coins but eventually, she managed to grab the cup and slid back down.

Holly tucked the cup into her bag before the trio slipped silently under the invisibility cloak again and they headed silently out of the vault. Draco picked up a large sum of money before he left so they would have something to live off of if they needed it.

"Mr Malfoy you seem to be getting younger again! And also you were talking to someone in there- I could have sworn it!" The goblin muttered, begining to become extremely confused.

"Are you suggesting that I have used magic to alter my apperance?" Draco snarled, sounding very much like Lucius.

"Well it would make sense..."

"Silence!" Draco snapped, kicking the goblin lightly. "Now I have what I want and I would like to leave!"

"Of course Mr Malfoy!" The goblin agreed, not wanting to be abused any longer.

This time around, they did not pass a waterfall or anything of that nature, only a dragon that spat fire to the tracks behind them. Soon enough, they were back at the main section of the bank that was made of beautiful marble and gold rather than the dark and dingy vaults.

"Good day Mr Malfoy." The goblin mumbled before scurrying off to his desk. As Draco left the bank, the goblin continued to stare at him, extremely suspicious. He knew something was up, but he couldn't accuse him of anything without any proof and he also couldn't arrest him for breaking the law since he had the wand so technically, he had done nothing wrong.

Draco ducked down the alleyway as the final effects of the charm Hermione had placed on him wore off.

"Are you here?" He whispered and Holly, Ron and Hermione emerged from underneath the cloak.

"I didn't know the charm would wear off- I didn't even know there was a waterfall!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Well we got the horcrux, probably, so that went well!" Ron said, a bit more optimistically than he had been since Ginny died.

"How do we even know that we did get it?" Holly asked. "We could have just got a random cup!"

"But we took an educated guess so we have a somewhat decent chance." Draco pointed out. "Now we need to get out of here before someone catches us!"

"Where do we go now?" Ron asked, trying to think of a place to go.

"Somewhere we can't be found. Or at least it would be hard to find us." Holly said, also trying to think of somewhere not too busy however, she hadn't exactly had a childhood of wondering around remote places in the countryside.

"I know somewhere!" Hermione exclaimed. She grabbed everyone and disapparated.

The four of them landed on the edge of a cliff that was covered in almost a foot of snow. They quickly stood up and scooted away from the cliff edge.

"Where are we Granger?" Draco asked whilst tucking his hands into his pockets to prevent them from going cold.

"Trefin. We're in Wales- it's a holiday place but everywhere is shut in the winter."

"Couldn't have picked somewhere a little warmer could you 'Mione?" Ron asked, a large chill going down his spine.

"If you all get a move on and follow me then there's a holiday house that we can go to."

The four teenagers trudged along the cliff until they reached the road that was covered in ice. Their feet had gone numb and their hands were burried as far down in their pockets as they would go. About a quater of the way up the road, they turned left into a grassy shortcut that was considerably less icy and walked up that instead. When they reached the top of the hill, a sign that read _Welcome to Trefin_ greeted them into a small, ice- cream coloured village.

It was only meant to be a three minute walk from the sign to where Hermione was taking them however, it took them alot longer since they had their backpacks and they were essentially icicles by then! Finally, they crossed the road and went down a small slope before approaching a white house with a few steps leading up to it.

"Isn't there anyone in there?" Holly asked as Hermione pulled her wand out.

"Everything is shut down during the winter because it's a summer holiday town. Wales isn't very warm at the best of times but during the colder months, it's even worse!" She explained. "Alohamora."

The door swung open and inside was just as cold as outside but atleast it was dry! The four swarmed into the cottage and saw to the left, a lovely little living room and on the right a cosy kitchen.

"Why did you pick here?" Draco asked as he placed the money he had nicked down on the table.

"I used to come here with my parents. We have family friends over here." She replied. "We always used to stay in this cottage."

"Will any of them recognise you?" Ron asked, lighting the fireplace and huddling in one of the chairs in the living room.

"This is a holiday village so they won't be round here. Anyway- they haven't seen me since I was 9!"

Everyone got warm by the fire. There was an ancient TV in the corner that looked like one of the first ones ever built in 1927 but they couldn't even get one channel up- it just went static. When night fell, everyone assigned themself a room. Since there were three rooms and four people, Holly and Hermione shared the twin room whilst Ron had the main bedroom and Draco had the downstairs room. All of them were equally as cold but Hermione made all of them several jarred fires like she had done in their first winter at Hogwarts.

The next morning, there was even more snow covering the ground. Nothing outside was moving since the wind was surprisingly calm. It was eerily still.

The four of them put on extra clothes, Draco having to borrow things from Ron since all he had was his black suit, and went out into the crisp snow.

Without the wind, they didn't feel quite as cold however, that didn't stop them from freezing still!

"Let's just get this over with!" Holly said as she placed the cup into the snow.

Hermione pulled the Basilisk fang out of her pocket and knelt down onto the ground.

"3, 2, 1..." She whispered before stabbing the cup straight through the center. A vast cloud of thick black smoke protruded from the cup. It seemed to take the shape of the Dark Mark but quickly dissappeared. However, the thick black smoke was replaced by the sea rising up and over the cliff edge, drenching them all with icy water.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" Yelled a middle aged woman from where the cliff met the road. "I saw you four come out of that holiday home while I was havin' a walk and then I see yers smokin' on the cliff and somehow, don' know how you did it, you got the sea to come up over the cliff edge!"

"Run now!" Ron hissed, not caring if they had to leave and come back.

Holly, Ron, Hermione and Draco sprinted as fast as they could, their whole bodies going numb from the icy water being dried off by the freezing cold air. They were about halfway across the cliff when they ducked into a shortcut and apparated back to the small cottage. Without a word, they all filled into the small living room and took a chair each.

"Well at least we destroyed one!" Hermione said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah but we also got caught and got drenched in sea water so now we probably have hyperthermia, pneumonia- you name it we have it!" Holly snapped, shivering slightly and shuffling towards the fire.

"But destroying one is better than none!" Ron pointed out.

"And then you remember that we have another two to find and another three to destroy!" She sighed.

"That means that we're halfway through- and we've even found over half of them!" Draco responded optimistically.

"I'm getting in the shower." Holly said, wanting a reason to escape the room.

She passed through the kitchen and went up the step into the bathroom. When she turned on the water, it was surprisingly warm. Double checking she had a towel, she hopped in and quickly warmed herself up. She still had the locket around her neck because she didn't want to risk being found in the cottage and have to leave it behind, therefore having to try and track it down again!

When she got out of the bathroom and back through the kitchen so she could put on some clean clothes, she heard the other three talking.

"I really don't think we should be doing this!" Ron whispered. "Just look at how many times we've nearly been caught!"

"I didn't think she should have come yet. We could have waited until we could apparate properly and the trace was off us." Hermione sighed.

"And what about actually knowing what the horcruxes are?" Draco suggested.

"That too."

"You know for once I agree with the ferret. It's just a pointless trip when we don't know what we're looking for!" Ron admitted.

It might have been the locket, but Holly was really offended by them calling it pointless! She had been set up to do this before she was even born and now they were telling her it was pointless' maybe not directly telling herbut she still found out.

She glided up the staircase, not wanting to alert the other three that she had overheard them and grabbed some clean clothes out of her bag. She also took the she put them on and went down the stairs with her bag on her back. She grabbed her shoes and tied her laces before taking the Basilisk fang off of the kitchen table where Hermione had left it.

She thought for around a minute of where she could go before a place popped into her head: she would go to somewhere warm where she could still destroy a horcrux in peace. So another holiday destination.

Just as she thought of somewhere, Draco emerged from the living room.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm leaving. You don't have to come on the pointless trip around the UK." Holly snapped before disapparating.


	16. Isolation

Holly found herself in a considerably less snowy Cornwall. She knew, even though she hadn't been there, that there were many campsites and holiday homes that she could squirrel away in for a while.

She knew that she had a tent in her bag since she had put it in her bag because Hermione didn't want it to smash any of the potion bottles she had.

"Accio tent." She whispered and the large sheet of material emerged from her rucksack.

She put it up, with quite a struggle, and placed a charm on it to make it bigger on the inside than the outside. Luckily, she had learned this charm from Hermione explaining how their tent at the Quidditch World Cup worked. However, she didn't have any protective enchantments spring fourth in her mind. When she entered the tent, it was already fully decked out with a bed and insulation- it was still cold but not quite freezing. Holly placed her bag on the floor before taking the Basilisk fang out of her pocket and turning it over in her hands. She contemplated destroying the horcrux inside the tent but decided that it might wreck it so she decided to wait until it was somewhat light outside and she could see what she was doing.

The tent was cold and lonely, Holly desperately wished that she could remember how to make a fire in a jar. She was only just realising how much she relied on the others to survive.

Holly didn't have any textbooks to look up emergancy spells in so she was very much on her own. Night time was upon her- even though it was technically only 6pm- it was dark and colder than usual. She climbed into the makeshift bed and graped hold of the locket around her neck. It seemed to burn her fingers because of how cold the metal and gemstone was against her already frozen skin. She didn't want to go to sleep yet since it was still early but she couldn't bare to be out of the mildly warm cocoon she called a bed. Without even realising it, she slipped into a light sleep with her wand just at her fingertips.

 _I know... I know what you're doing- and there is nothing to stop me from getting to you now!_ _You are foolish, you have made many bad decisions but now- you're mine!_

Holly shot up, the beads of sweat on her forehead freezing and re melting on her blazing hot forehead. The lightning bolt scar that seemed to be slowly growing and creeping it's way across her face burned and Holly gripped it tight, cooling off her abnormally hot face. She didn't know who had been talking to her but she could take a _wild_ guess and most likely get it right.

"Lumos." She whispered and the old watch that she had nicked from Dudley's room of things he didn't want told her that it was 2:30am. Holly knew that she would get little more sleep so she got out of bed and was blasted with the brisk air coming out an open flap in the tent.

"Homenum revelio." Holly whispered, remembering the incantation Hermione had said when they entered Godric's Hollow. Nothing appeared to happen.

Holly hesitantly walked over to the open tent and poked her head outside. She could hear the faint crunch of snow somewhere way off in the distance of the cold night. Since she had fallen asleep, the thinnest layer of white snow had coated the ground like icing sugar. Holly lowered her wand to the ground slightly and saw footprints leading from the tent. Someone had been there- yet they didn't kill her or turn her in! The people who would do that were few and far between at the current time. Holly reahed up to itch her neck, expecting the cold metal of the chain from the locket to meet her fingers however, it didn't. She placed her hand over the front of her chest to feel the large gemstone but nothing was there.

"Accio horcrux!" She said, breaking the eerie silence. She knew it wouldn't work. Using it against dark magic like that never did! Holly scrambled over to her bed and put her wand between her teeth. She pulled back the blanket and found nothing.

The locket was gone!

The only things running through her mind were panic and regret- if she hadn't run away and abandoned everyone then this would have never happened! Now she was making the task seem both pointless and impossible!

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" She shouted, wishing she had some more lights. She searched around the tent and found several candles that she promptly lit with her wand. They added a small amount of light but zero heat. Desperately, Holly checked underneath the makeshift bed to see if the clasp had come undone during the night and it had simply fallen off onto the floor. Still nothing. She burried her face into the hard matress and screamed. Luckily, there was no one out camping in mid- December, right before Christmas, so she was free to make pretty much whatever noise she wanted, in risk of being caught by the Ministry or worse: Voldemort.

She picked up her wand and her bag before letting the tent down. If someone had taken one thing, then surely they would go back to whoever they worked for and tell them that they had found Holly Potter! It was pitch black outside and Holly could barely see a thing, infact, she couldn't even see her own feet!

"Lumos Maxima." She whispered and a huge ray of light burst from her wand, making a 10 foot radius around her as bright as the pique of a summer afternoon.

Holly managed to stuff the tent into her rucksack and slung it over her back. Only now did she notice there were many other tents surrounding her so if she were to apparate now then she would alert them even more than she was already doing with her wand light.

She walked for around an hour anand was still surrounded by tents. Holly had no clue where they had all come from but she knew for a fact that when she arrived, she was alone.

After yet another half an hour, she stopped and looked at her surroundings. Everything seemed a little farmiliar. There was a large tent around two feet to her left and a small one just a few steps away. she took another few steps and, just infront of her, was a rectangular patch where there was only a thin sprinkling of snow compared to the few inches of everywhere else. Holly approached the rectangle on the ground and noticed that it must have been about the same size as her tent had been on the outside. But surely she couldn't be where she had set off an hour and a half ago. She knew that wasn't possible! Right? Not especially caring about the other campers who had arrived in the middle of the night, Holly tried to disapparate. However, her body wouldn't dematerialise. She tried to take a few steps but her feet seemed glued to the cold ground. When she tried to jump, her knees just locked before buckling and she fell to the ground. Now her feet had moved but her knees were stuck in the deepening snow.

All the tents seemed to melt away as someone walked closer towards Holly. She tried to cast a spell to defend herself but her wand was sent flying out of her hand. She was exhausted from the stress and walking through deep snow that she couldn't even try and reach for it.

"Who are you?" She hissed, trying to see the shadowy figure.

"I think you know the answer to that question already." Said a cold voice. "Lumos."

Holly looked up and the man's face and couldn't even form words.

"You need to come with me." He sneered.

"No! How fucking dare you!" Holly shouted as the curse was lifted off of her and she could move again. She got up and began to run away but a strong hex binded her body and made her collapse to the floor.

"Don't try to run from me!" He snapped, grabbing Holly's shoulder and pulling her up off the floor.

"Leave me alone Snape!" She yelled, trying to get away from him. He disapparated with his hand still on Holly's shoulder.

Their destination was Hogwarts. She was stood in the Headmaster's office- that much she could tell but it looked different. There were no longer eccentric trinkets lining the shelves and the main desk wasn't there anymore. Instead, the shelves and cabinets had been taken down and there was one long table.

"The Dark Lord will be happy to see that someone has successfully captured you." Snape sneered as he pointed his wand at a chair near Holly. "Do feel free to take a seat while you wait."

"You traitor! You fucking traitor!" She yelled, willing herself to apparate away. It didn't work- of course it didn't, she was on Hogwarts grounds.

"I am well aware of my actions. In fact there are several I am most proud of, despite them not going to plan. For example: The imperious curse on Zorander at the beginning of the year. That was most pleasurable. Getting Black in that was just a bonus." Snape admitted as he paced the length of the office. "My plan would have worked if Mr Malfoy didn't get in the way. Correct me if I'm wrong but he ran away with you, Weasley and Granger did he not?"

"That was you? Why, what did I ever do?"

"My intentions were simple. If you're tortured to insanity, you're much easier to kill."

A loud crack came from the balcony outside the office and a hooded figure with glistening red eyes was visible. Holly could feel her heart pounding out of her chest- how was she going to escape this one?

"Holly Potter, we meet again." Voldemort remarked in his low, raspy voice. "It seems like only yesterday when I turned up in Godric's Hollow to slaughter you and your family. Do you have your wand or has my good friend Severus taken it temporarily?" He asked, looking between the two of them.

"I have it My Lord. It made things easier for her transportation." Snape replied, pulling Holly's wand out of his pocket.

"All is well and good then. Give the girl her wand- she deserves a fair fight." Voldemort ordered and Snape gave Holly her wand reluctantly. "And you must be wondering how we found you. We have eyes everywhere you see and I'm really not happy with what you did to that cup. The man who shouted at you- he was one of mine. We also had you transported somewhere ot of Cornwall in order to keep you where we can see you."

Holly had shuffled into the corner of the office just next to the door. She had her wand pointed out infront of her incase Voldemort was to attack. He knew what she was doing- and it couldn't mean anything good for Holly.

"Avada Kadavra!" Voldemort bellowed and the beam of green light hurtled towards Holly.

"Protago!" She exclaimed but there was no need for it. The door that was to her left swung open and took the curse for her. She heard a farmiliar voice throw many spells at Voldemort who wasn't being backed up by Snape any longer since the man didn't want to harm another Professor. More specifically, Professor McGonagall.

"Stupid woman! Do you realise I could have just stopped the Wizarding War?" He snapped. Holly wasn't going to take it, out of all the adults she knew, McGonagall was one of the only ones who was kind to her for the sake of being kind to her. She didn't rat the trio out when they came to Hogwarts- infact, she was the one who summoned them so she could give them the items from Dumbledore's will.

"CRUCIO!" Holly yelled, throwing the curse at Voldemort. He was obviously taken off guard since he was busy duelling McGonagall and he doubled over.

"Petrificus totalus." McGonagall said calmly, pointing her wand at Snape who was too preoccupied deciding who to defend and how. "Run! Now!" She yelled at Holly who was still just next to the door.

"I won't leave you here!" Holly replied.

"I'm a Professor- I have to stay!" McGonagall snapped angrily. "Now go!"

Holly ran out of the room and down the spiral staircase out of the Headmaster's office. Her stomach dropped when she fully realised that she had left McGonagall in a room with Voldemort! However, she kept on running- there was no point in turning back now, she was safe and intended to stay that way. When she reached the statue of the one eyed witch, Holly slid behind it and began to walk down the corridor. She didn't want to go back to Cornwall because she could get caught again but she hadn't a clue where she could go. Holly regretted leaving everyone else- if only she'd taken the locket off and took a few seconds to think rationally, she would still have somewhere to go and have another horcrux destroyed rather than stolen. It was too late now though- she didn't know if her friends were where she'd left them or if they'd moved somewhere else.

She scanned her brain to find somewhere that wasn't too far away but still down south enough for her not to die of hypothermia! The first place that popped into her mind was Surrey- more specifically the town she had grown up in.

When she apparated into the town, she looked around to find out where she was exactly. She was in the middle of the public park but no one was there since it was only 6am. The town would just about be waking up soon. Looking around the streets, Holly noticed Christmas lights and trees covering all of the houses. She hadn't a clue of the day but she did know that it was near Christmas. This was the first of Christmas that Holly had seen that year and it was already, most likely, late December.

In one of the windows, Holly noticed a large calendar: Monday 25th December. It was Christmas day and she was abandoned and alone in her abusive childhood home town. Now that she had her wand back, Holly had access to everywhere. She went over to Privet Drive and went to the farmiliar Number Four.

"Alohamora." She whispered, pointing her wand at the door lock. She pushed the door open and the house was silent. Dudley wouldn't be awake for another several hours because the bratty boy who always complaining about not having as many presents as the previous year really didn't seem to care anymore. He'd rather be out with his mates, didn't matter what the day was.

There was piles upon piles of presents in the living room, all labeled for Dudley and in the kitchen was a whole fridge full of food all prepared to be cooked for Christmas dinner. Holly didn't have any food now so she knew this was her only chance to steal some. In the cupboards, there was enough food to last a lifetime. It was as if the Dursleys would starve if they didn't go to the shops for a whole two days!

Once her bag was stocked up on food, Holly had to get out of the house before Vernon and Petunia woke up to make Christmas breakfast. Silently locking the door behind her, Holly made her way out onto Privet Drive. Lights of houses that has smaller children were begining to turn on and excited squeals could be heard as they saw the huge pile of gifts that they had to unwrap.

Holly attempted to draw as little attention to herself as possible, if she was seen by anyone then she would surely be taken in somewhere- both the wizarding and the muggle community had been told to look out for her, but maybe they'd forgotten about that since it was almost two months ago. Then again, the wizarding world was publically on the hunt for Sirius for a year and he wasn't famous!

Immediately, Holly's stomach sunk when she realised that it was Christmas and she had no way of contacting anyone she loved to say whether she was alright or just tell them Happy Christmas. No one knew if she was alive or not, McGonagall could assume the best but in times like this, would she?

Holly found the invisibility cloak out of her bag and pulled it over herself. She couldn't put her tent up and get some more sleep because that would alert people that there was someone illegally camping in the middle of Surrey. Holly just knew she had to get away from the Dursleys- who had most likely seen that Holly was wanted and were now panicking because they couldn be associated with her!

Not really caring whether anyone else was there, Holly went to Number 12 Grimmauld Place. She hadn't seen her Godfather since the start of November- she hadn't even spoken to him via owl or the mirror he had gifted to her. She had left the mirror in her old room at the house so it would be harder to track her down.

The sun was begining to creep up over the buildings and a thick layer of snow covered the ground- it was hard to find somewhere that didn't have at least a sprinkling of it. As she approached the place where the house should be, the door came into view. She pushed the door, expecting it to be locked but it just opened.

"Homenum revelio." She whispered when she entered the house.

Nothing happened. The house was empty...


	17. The Thief

Holly immediately pulled out her wand. The door swung closed behind her, making her jump slightly. Slowly, she edged her way further into the house, checking every room as she went. As she reached the end of the corridor, a small squeak came from the kitchen. The hairs on the back of Holly's neck stood on end- what was there?

"He should have stayed. Shouldn't have gone. He has no hope!" Growled a quiet voice. Holly recognised it, she had heard it before, the low brooding voice that often came from the shadows in Grimmald Place.

"Kreacher!" She snapped as the door creaked open. "Where is everyone?"

"Potter! Kreacher doesn't know exactly where they are." The elf replied.

"What has Sirius gone to do?"

"Find you of course. He's running around Britain looking for you!" Kreacher replied somewhat cruelly.

"How long has he been gone?" Holly asked, glancing around the dishevelled looking kitchen.

"Since the Mudblood, Blood traitor and Pureblood came. They all went with Black."

"Don't call them that! They have names, did you not know that?" Holly asked sarcastically. "Did they say when they'd be back?"

"Whenever they found you." Kreacher snarled, an evil grin across his face.

"Has anyone been here recently?" Holly asked.

"Kreacher saw the Order come around. Bunch of unpleasant traitors!"

"What were they doing here?"

"Why should Kreacher tell you?" The house elf asked before looking like he was in emmense amounts of pain.

"What's wrong with you?" Holly asked, furrowing her brow and thinking what Hermione would do as leader of S.P.E.W.

"Kreacher must tell Holly Potter everything she demands to know!" He murmured, clutching each ear and pulling them down towards his shoulders to cause pain to himself. "They were discussing how to recapture the stolen item!"

"What?"

"Kreacher wants it just as much as them. It was Master Regulus' wishes for Kreacher to own it!"

"The..." Holly started, reaching for her neck. The small, wrinkled elf nodded silently for a few seconds.

"The locket! The one Fletcher sold on!"

"Who?"

"Mundungus Fletcher! Got a whole lot of grief for it over here."

"How did he get it? Did he steal it from me?" Holly exclaimed.

"Fletcher claimed he got it off another thief. Stole it from a camper- too dark to see anything else, only saw the glow of the locket in the moonlight!" Kreacher sneered, disgusted by the story. "Then the thief went and got themself killed so it was easy to get the best deals!"

"So where is it now?"

"Kreacher doesn't know! That is a question for someone else to answer!"

Holly paced the kitchen for a minute or so, occasionally tripping over an upturned chair or a pan of some description. First of all, how was she going to find everyone else, and secondly, how was she going to get a hold of Fletcher to interrogate him about the locket, all without being spotted.

"Kreacher, what rooms are in this house?" She asked, taking a wild leap in what could be possible and what might not be!

"The kitchen, the living room, the bedrooms and the basement." The house elf replied curiously.

"What's in the basement?"

"Just some torture devices wizards used to use on muggles, rare potion ingredients, all the items that used to belong to the blood traitor Black that were to be burned, sadly Kreacher never got to set any possessions alight." He explained, even more curious now.

"Where is the basement?" Holly asked immediately.

"Kreacher will show you. Is Holly Potter wishing to torture muggles?"

"No of course not Kreacher! It's foul that you would think of such a thing!" Holly snapped shortly, her emerald eyes piercing into the elf's.

"Then what does Holly Potter wish to do?" Kreacher asked as he snapped his fingers and a large silver key zoomed towards him.

"I need to see if you have what I need first." Holly replied as she followed the 3 foot tall wrinkled creature to underneath the stairs.

The key fit perfectly into the key hole and turned slowly, like it hadn't been used in many years. The door underneath the stairs creaked as it gently swung open, revealing darkness.

"Lumos." Holly said, holding her wand out infront of her and a wave of familiarity hitting her. A creaky wooden staircase lead down into the ground, the faint sound of dripping water hitting a cold stone floor at the bottom. Slowly, Holly descended the staircase that spiraled it's way to around 20 feet undergound.

Kreacher clapped his hands twice and a subtle chandelier lit up- well it was subtle compared to the rest of the house and only let off a small amount of light. A large pile of things that looked like they might belong to a young wizard was stacked in the far corner and bottles upon bottles of labled potion ingredients sat upon shelves next to some medieval contraptions.

"Lumos maxima." Holly said, the tip of her wand producing a brighter light and her voice echoing down the room. First of all, she inspected the pile of dusty books in the corner. On the very top was _Potion making beyond NEWT standard._ Holly scanned the titles of the hard backs down the pile until she found something she was looking for.

"Perfect!" She whispered to herself, cautiously sliding the book out of it's slot.

As she blew dust from the front cover, Holly opened the book and noticed a large stamp with the letter _H_ in the middle and the famous Hogwarts crest. She smiled to herself as she scanned her finger down the contense page. When she found what she was looking for, she flicked past many pages until she reached page 157.

Clearing a space on a small on a rickety wooden table, Holly placed the large book down and scanned a list of ingredients.

"1. Mandrake leaf,

2\. Lacewing flies' lacewings

3\. Powdered unicorn hooves and horn

4\. Ink from the gallywantus squid

5\. Shoe bats' battered shoes." She murmured to herself, raising one eyebrow at the book as she read the last line. However, all the ingredients written down on the page were on the shelf. One by one, Holly pulled down a bottle and weighed out exactly what she needed using some old fashioned balancing scales before putting the ingredients into separate vials that she had stolen from Hermione before she left the group.

"May Kreacher request to know what Holly Potter is doing?" Snarled the elf as he witnessed Holly stealing from the Black household.

"I'm becoming an animagus." Holly replied simply yet surely.

"That is most illegal for an underage witch such as yourself. Kreacher could report Holly Potter to the Ministry for such a crime."

"But you aren't going to. I've been in the house all day and you've not yet turned me in!" Holly replied, beginning to skim through the long set of instructions.

 _1\. You must keep a mandrake leaf, whether it be fresh or centuries old, in your mouth for 30 days without swallowing it or taking it out. If this were to happen, the process must be restarted._

 _2\. On the night of a new moon, you must brew a potion outside so it is bathed in the light of the stars. For instructions to this potion, see Potion making beyond NEWT standard._

 _3\. When the next rainstorm comes, drink the potion and wash your mouth with freshly fallen raindrops._

 _4\. Over the next few weeks attempt to transform into your animagus form. If you cannot transform over 60 days after the potion has been drunk, the process has not worked and must be repeated._

Holly grabbed the copy of _Potion making beyond NEWT standard_ and carried it- along with _Animagus_ _transformations-_ up the spiral staircase, with Kreacher following behind her. She placed the heavy books down on the table before noticing a calendar on the floor with various dots, crosses and circles. She picked it up and noticed a key at the very start. It said 1996 in a large bold font on the front and said, in neat, uniform handwriting:

x _: Possible full moon_

0 _: Most likely date of full moon_

 _•: New moon_

Just underneath where that calendar was an identical one for 1995. Holly opened the one for 1996 and opened it to January where all the markings had been placed. She began counting backwards in weeks.

"7, 14, 21, 28, 29, 30." She whispered under her breath, counting onto the 1995 calendar. Her finger lay on Christmas day. "Today. If I start right now then I'll be able to do it by January!" Holly exclaimed excitedly. She could do it- the possibility was so close she could taste it. Or that might have been the foul taste of the mandrake leaf she had placed in her mouth.

Holly went to spit the leaf out but knew if she did then she'd just have to put another in. She tried talking but it just ended up sounding like she was gargling water. Scanning her mind for a useful spell to keep the leaf in her mouth, one came to mind. She had been set a homework task on it in charms the previous year and could remember trying her best to fill up an entire page of writing about one incantation.

"Parvum lignum unum." She said as clearly as possible. Afterwards, she attempted to remove the leaf from her mouth- it wouldn't budge. She could speak almost normally now due to her not having a fear of spitting the mandrake leaf out and having to restart. If this was all she needed to do, then this was going to be relatively easy!

No one came for the whole month that Holly was sat around with the Mandrake leaf in her mouth. Sure she had the invisibility cloak, but she couldn't go round the streets of Great Britain under a cloak all the time- instead, she had to blend in more because muggles aren't used to bustling down a busy street and bumping into something that isn't there.

On the night of the new moon, Holly sat out in the garden, the cauldron she had stolen balanced on top of a makeshift fire. With her wand lit between her teeth, she flicked through the copy of _Potion making beyond NEWT standard_ until she found the correct page.

 _1\. Sprinkle and spread around 100g of Lacewing fly lacewings onto the bottom of a heated cauldron under the light of the stars on the night of a new moon. Make sure they are spread evenly to ensure correct dissolvement._

 _2\. Add 76.5g out of 199g of the powdered unicorn hooves before slowly brushing all 50g of the powdered horn into the cauldron._

 _3\. Add the gallywantus squid ink in small splashes, mixing evenly until a burning smell occurs. A small explosion will go off but do not touch or remove the cauldron from the heat._

 _4\. Add the remainder of the unicorn hooves in small sections- aproximately 10g at a time._

 _5\. Dissolve in the shoe bats' battered shoes and let the potion simmer over._

 _6\. After the simmering occurs, remove the mandrake leaf from your mouth and add it in whole to the potion. If done correctly, the leaf will sink and make a loud noise like that if metal as it hits the bottom of the cauldron._

 _7\. A hissing sound can be heard when the potion is ready. If all has gone correctly, the potion will be a royal blue hue._

 _WARNING: ONLY ATTEMPT TO TURN INTO YOUR ANIMAGUS FORM IF THE POTION HAS GONE CORRECTLY, IF IT DOESN'T WORK, DO NOT DRINK IT!_

Holly skimmed through the instructions several times before following the instructions. If it weren't for the small flame keeping the cauldron hot, she was almost 100% certain that she would have frozen then and there. The grumpy house elf watched on with an almost evil grin on his face, wishing for Holly to fail from inside.

It took around 3 hours to make the potion since it was so dark, even with Holly's wand lit. The moment Holly was certain she had it right, she went back inside to defrost.

"Has Holly Potter done it?" Kreacher asked, almost disappointed.

"I hope so." She replied rather confidently.

"Did you know that if the potion goes wrong then the drinker can die from it?" Kreacher snarled. "Just an extra gram of powdered unicorn hooves creates a poison!"

Holly gulped, looking at the cauldron she had dragged into the house with her. She began to question her ability of seeing colour. What if she was colour blind and didn't even know it! What if the potion looked royal blue but was actually a deep shade of orange? What if she died because of this? Her belly rumbled, disturbing her panic. She hadn't been able to eat a awful lot over the past month, infact she couldn't do an awful lot of anything. If she did any physical activity then she could rip the mandrake leaf in half. If she over thought anything then her habit of chewing her cheeks would ruin her plan. And the whole point of becoming an animagus was so that she could go outside into the world without being spotted so that was obviously out of the question!

Holly waited around, hoping someone would turn up and tell her that she wasn't alone anymore. That they had found the locket. Even better if it had been destroyed. But there was absolutely no chance of that happening! The waiting around in silence at Number 12 Grimmauld Place was painful- there was no one to talk to other than Kreacher- who had for some reason taken a particular disliking to Holly and only seemed to tell her anything because he had been instructed to do so. It was only on a particularly clear day when something happened. Holly hadn't been on high alert at the time so it was lucky she hadn't been caught by the intruder.

Holly had ducked into a large cupboard with a small decorative glass pane in it that she could just about see through. A rather short man krept quietly into the kitchen and looked around. Holly couldn't help but smile as she thought it was how Dudley looked around when he was going to steal some pudding from the side before he had eaten dinner. However, she knew this person wasn't here to steal a slice of cake or a bowl of ice cream- this man was a snatcher, looking out for real things worth real money. Holly's main concern was would the short man find her but her second was how on earth did he get in if the house was being used as headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix?

Holly watched through the tiny pane of stained glass as the man rumaged through the house, looking for an expensive trinket or two. He seemed to be in the kitchen for hours, or so it seemer to Holly since she was stuffed in a cupboard. Kreacher didn't emerge from the corner of the room- where he was in plain sight- and also didn't say a word to stop the man. Of course Holly would have done it herself if she wasn't wanted by both Voldemort and The Ministry and this man was more than likely to work for one of them and Holly had a sick feeling in her stomach as she could take a wild guess as to whose side he was on!

"What's in here?" The short man asked, pointing to Holly's backpack that was tucked under the kitchen table.

"Kreacher doesn't know what possessions Holly Potter has brought into the house."

"Holly Potter? She's here?"

"Kreacher cannot say. It would be against his Master's wishes." He replied, shuddering slightly as he said the word _master_.

"Well can I take some things?" The man asked, already beginning to open up the bag.

"There is nothing Kreacher can do to stop anyone from taking Holly Potters possessions."

Holly watched on as item after item was taken from her bag. Luckily, her wand was upstairs, somewhere the man didn't seem particularly interested in- maybe he had already stolen everything of value there.

Dread filled Holly as he pulled out her animagus potion, surely he couldn't sell it to someone else, it would never work! Next he pulled out the Basilisk fang, and the enchanted mirror. Holly could have cried when he did so- she didn't have to sit alone in the house for over a month, wasting precious time and attempting to become an animagus! If she'd have just used her brain then she could have told everyone she was still alive!

"I think that will be all! My condolences Kreacher! Shall be back to steal some more in a few weeks!"

"Kreacher will await Mundungus Fletcher's arrival."

Fletcher. Mundungus Fletcher. This was the man who had sold the locket. He was stealing from Holly yet again!

"Fletcher!" She snapped, bursting out from the cramped cupboard. "Put it down, the lot of it!"

"Holly Potter!" Mundungus bumbled, attempting to juggle the items as he nearly dropped them all. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question. Now tell me, whoes side are you on?"

"I'm part of the Order thank you very much!"

"Then why are you stealing from Headquarters?" Holly asked smugly.

"It's my way of getting around in life, isn't it! I steal and I sell on." Mundungus replied.

"Well I need all of that so I can defeat Voldemort. Unless you're willing to die only a couple of galleons ritcher than you are now rather than living several more decades, then you can give them back to me."

"Why are you so confident in yourself. You don't even have a wand with you!" Fletcher provoked, looking Holly up and down.

"Accio wand." Holly whispered under her breath, desperately hoping that she could do just one bit of wandless magic. Surprisingly, the wand came zooming into her hand from upstairs. "Are you sure about that?" She asked, a smirk spreading across her face.

"Fine I'll give you youyour stupid things back! Not like they're going to be worth much anyway. A shabby old mirror, several vials of blue water and a dog's tooth. Doesn't scream endless ritches to me!"

"And just another thing, where did you sell the locket?" Holly asked as she took everything back.

"Not the flaming locket again. I already said that I sold it on!"

"Who to?"

"This man. He had a kind of cold voice, must have been rather young. Didn't see his face all that much but his hands were pale and his eyes were grey." Fletcher explained. "He seemed to be wearing all black underneath his robes, very formal looking."

"How much did you sell it for?" Holly asked, her wand still raised in Fletcher's face.

"Around 10 galleons. The bloke seemed annoyed at the price but didn't hesitate to buy it."

Holly scanned her mind for someone it could be but no one immediately came to mind. She stood for around half a minute trying to figure out who it could be out of everyone in the world. Her thoughts were interrupted when a loud crack made her lose her train of thought.

"Well I guess today is my lucky day." Sneered a rough looking man with dark grey hair and colourless eyes. "Holly Potter has summoned me. The Dark Lord is going to be pleaser with me!"

Fletcher immediately disapparated but just as Holly was about to grab her bag and go, the tall man launched himself at her, grabbing her around her waist and slinging her over his shoulder. Kreacher has fleed to underneath the stairs as Holly was kicking and screaming to be let go. Fortunately, the man hadn't noticed her large bag because if he had, then everything she had done would have been lost.

Holly felt sick and dizzy as the pair unexpectedly apparated to a large Manor House. It reminded her of Malfoy Manor, but it was a different building. Of course she didn't get to see much of the house because she was still balanced on the creepy man's shoulder, his bone sticking into her ribcage.

"Let me go!" She screamed in the man's ear.

"Do us all a favour and shut up!" He replied, kicking the door of the Manor house open and throwing Holly to the floor. "Look who I've found." He announced to the room who all fell silent.

"Potter! You've finally returned!" Bellatrix squealed, taking Holly's wand off of her kidnapper. "Did you come to find your traitor of a friend?"

"Who?"

"DON'T TALK!" She shrieked. "But it's the Malfoy traitor if you're so confused!"

"Draco?"

"SHUT UP!" Lestrange yelled. "Now you can see him. And either you can cooperate and we won't hurt him. Or you can watch him die before being killed yourself."

Holly snapped her mouth closed as she saw Draco unconscious and tied to a chair leg by both of his wrists and ankles.

"We've had him for just over a month. Found him out looking for you alone." Bellatrix explained in an eerily quiet voice. "Not a clever move on your part Potter. We also found this." She added, holding up the locket that was still tied around his neck.

"Madame Lestrange, would you like me to wake him up so he can see Potter die?" Asked a nervous woman from the corner of the room.

"For once you have a good idea!" She replied in a high pitched voice. "Now Holly Potter, little Draco Malfoy here is going to wake up any moment now and he's going to watch you die. The more he tries to stop us, the more painful it's going to get. And look he's come to!"

"Holly! No! Why are you here?" Draco asked as he made momentary eye contact with Holly.

"Crucio!" Bellatrix squealed excitedly and Holly crumpled to the floor. Screams of agony left her mouth and Draco attempted to get out of the chair he was tied into. "He's squirming! CRUCIO!"

Wave after wave of pain hit Holly as Bellatrix used hex after curse after jinx. It lasted for hours, the moon began to rise in the sky outside as Holly sobbed into the cold marble floor. She had screamed so much that her voice had completely gone- no matter how much she tried to scream for help.

"You seem only a short while away from death don't you Holly?" Bellatrix pouted as she grabbed her long raven hair and pulled her upwards so she was looking straight into the light of the moon. "I think it's time we call the Dark Lord!"

Bellatrix pulled up her sleeve to reveal a black tattoo on her wrist. She pressed her wand into the dark mark and within moments, a cloud of black smoke filled the room and from it emerged Voldemort.

"Why have I been summoned?" He asked in his low raspy voice.

"My Lord! Holly Potter is on the edge of death!" Bellatrix announced, her excitement gone and only blood lust left in her voice.

"Well that truely is wonderful!" Voldemort hissed, pulling his wand from a concealed pocket in his long, flowing robes. When he turnee to face Holly, his blood red eyes cut straight into Holly and a seering pain shot through her scar. She reached to clutch it but only pushed in the shards of glass from her broken glasses further into her forehead.

"Please." Holly begged but it wasn't audible since her voice was merely a whisper, her lips were moving but no one could tell what she was saying.

"AVADA KADAVRA!"


	18. Revival

A flash of lime green light. That's the last thing she remembered. This was the end, the light hurtled towards her and- gone! She was dead. Holly tumbled into blackness, just about being able to hear a terrified scream before it suddenly cut off. Silence.

It felt like both hours and merely milliseconds but a blinding white light woke Holly up from death. She bolted upright, immediately regretting it since she didn't know where her wand was so she could defend herself. However, she wasn't greeted by the red eyes of Voldemort or the mask of a death eater, she met the twinkling blue of Albus Dumbledore's eyes.

"But you're dead!" She screamed, clapping her hand over her mouth as soon as she did.

"Yes indeed I am. As are you." He smiled with a soft chuckle as he held out his hand to help Holly up off the floor. She still looked very beaten up from Bellatrix Lestrange torturing her and she ached all over but the pain seemed to have faded since her death though.

"Then how am I still talking and not in a heap on the floor surrounded by death eaters celebrating my death?"

"Oh you most likely are."

"No I'm not! I'm alive and talking to you!" She argued, pinching herself to check if this wasn't some sort of insane nightmare.

"You are but this conversation isn't visible to anyone but you and I." Dumbledore ensured, patting Holly's shoulder.

"So it isn't real?"

"Of course it's real. Merely still in you're head. Many things in the Wizarding world can be lots of things at once."

"So why am I here then?" Holly asked, trying to put together the pieces and figure out what Dumbledore was trying to say.

"Well there are some things you don't yet know. If I had seen the chance then I would have told you, however, now is the time." The old man said. "Holly Potter, you were a horcrux before Lord Voldemort killed you. You have not yet died unless that is what you decide." He added, gesturing to his left.

"Is that a train? Hang on, are we in Kingscross Station?" Holly asked, squinting at what Dumbledore was pointing to.

"Why don't you tell me. If you're so sure, why don't you take a trip back to where you were before?" He replied as Holly walked over to the train.

"Are you coming Profe..." Holly asked, turning around as she did so but instead of being greeted by Dumbledore's face, she just looked around at the pristine white train station.

The moment she stepped onto the train, it began to pull away from the station. Holly felt like she couldn't move so just stood in the open doorway of the train and held onto the frame. She didn't know if what Dumbledore had implied was possible, or a sane thing to think, but either way she would end up somewhere abd now she was dead- would it really matter?

People describe death as seeing light at the end of a tunnel, like they're being welcomed with open arms, but wherever Holly was going moat definitely wasn't welcoming. Instead of seeing light, she saw extreme darkness. Maybe she was going to hell, it wouldn't surprise her all that much considering all that had happened to her and all she had made happen to others! However, she soon realised that this was not where she was headed for she found herself on the floor in a crumpled heap with someone right next to her.

She daren't breathe too deeply incase she gave herself away- thank god for the many layers she was wearing due to the blistering winter weather! Taking shallow breaths, Holly tried to figure out how much time had really gone by.

"Draco Malfoy. You seem to gave grown attached to the Potter girl." A cold voice hissed. "Why is that?" He didn't get a response, at least not a verbal one since Holly couldn't see anything. "Stand up. Now!" Barked Voldemort and Holly immediately felt the slight heat from another person fade away. "I challenge you to a duel. You have betrayed me long enough so now it is your time to pay."

Fear flasher through Holly's body. She was alive again and couldn't have someone else she considered a friend die in front of her!

"We'll start of easy. Crucio!"

"Protago!"

"Very well then, I shall have to try a little harder. Seems my Death Eaters have trained you well!" Voldemort sneered. Holly still didn't know where anyone was but she wanted to help- she would just have to be subtle!

She felt around for her wand as best she could, only really being able to check her right pocket. Luckily, before she had been whisked away to wherever she was, Holly had managed to tuck her wand into her sleeve so no one would be able to find it and take it from her. Opening her eyes just a tiny fraction, she scanned the room to see who was were. Right infront of her, she saw the long black robes of Lord Voldemort as well as his white, cracked skin. She could see he was holding his wand out infront of him, ready to throw another curse at Draco.

"Expelliarmus." Holly whispered and she just about saw the momentary confusion spread across the Dark Lord's face.

"Do you dare disrespect me with such a simple spell?"

"I didn't. I don't even have my wand in my hand." Draco claimed. "Some fair fight." He whispered under his breath ao no one could hear it besides Holly who was on the floor at bis feet.

Through the slits of her open eyes, Holly saw Voldemort snatch his wand from a masked Death Eater who had retrieved it from him.

"Let's try again you undeserving fool!"

"Stupefy." Holly whispered under her breath, closing her eyes again in order to attract minimal attention. She heard the spell hit Voldemort's stomach and a few faint footsteps could be heard as he stumbled backwards.

"CRUCIO!" Voldemort shouted furiously and a loud bang echoed around the room as Draco crumpled to the floor. Holly could hear him wimpering right next to her. She heard his wand roll across the hard wooden floor away from them.

"I'm sorry Holly." He whispered before screaming in agony as the torture intensified.

"Imperio." Holly whispered, still lying perfectly still on the floor. She opened her eyes just enough for her to see Voldemort. All emotion had left his eyes and he seemed almost lifeless.

 _I want you to kill everyone in this room apart from Holly Potter and Draco Malfoy._ Holly wished and she saw something inside the Dark Lord snap. He turned to face his Death Eaters with his wand raised. They knew something was going on but they couldn't quite figure out what was going on.

Several quick flashes of green light lit up the room and five masked figures lost their lives at the hands of their leader. Suddenly, Holly's body contracted as the cruciartus curse hit her.

"Potter. She's alive!" Shrieked Bellatrix Lestrange who had just lowered her wand.

"Stupefy!" Holly yelled, stunning the witch who momentarily stopped trying to throw hexes at her or even kill her.

"We need to go!" Draco snapped, standing up and helping fight off everyone.

"Expelliarmus!" Holly shouted as green light hurtled towards her. A silvery white light, almost like an orb, formed at the centre of the two beams. In the corner of her eye, Holly saw everyone stop. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion around her. She didn't focus on what was going on around her though- more about what was going on right infront of her. She could've sworn the green light was inching closer. She'd be dead for real if it got any closer!

Suddenly, two arms grabbed her and she felt herself disapparate. The sudden change in speed made her dizzy and confused. She wasn't sure where she was when she landed but wherever she was, it was ruined by her coughing up blood everywhere.

"I am so sorry." A usually cold voice said. "I just needed to get you out of there." He said nervously.

"It's ok. I'm fine." Holly said before coughing up just a bit more of the thick red substance.

"You aren't fine. We need to get you inside. Do you have your invisibility cloak?" Draco asked as he wiped away the blood from Holly's face with his sleeve.

"No it's in my bag." She spluttered before trying to stand up. Immediately, her leg gave way at the knee and she fell to the floor again, being cushioned slightly by the seemingly everlasting layer of snow, despite the heavy rain beginning to melt it away slowly.

"Don't try and stand up on your own. You've got a mild splinch. Nothing Madame Pomfrey can't fix."

"Wait, where are we?" Holly asked, looking around her for the first time.

"Hogsmeade. Correct me if I'm wrong but you know a way to get into the castle from here."

Holly nodded eagerly as Draco helped her up, supporting her as she hobbled over to Honeydukes sweet shop. When she got there, she pulled out her wand and unlocked the door. As she pushed the door open, a loud alarm went off and many lights began to turn on.

"In here the both of you!" A rugged old man hissed. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm trying to save you both!"

"Who are you?" Holly asked as she tried to walk over to the man.

"Carry her. It'll make life easier for us all!"

Draco picked Holly up, trying his best to avoid touching where she had been splinched. They got inside a shabby little house that looked like it was built out of rubble and Draco set Holly down on a chair that the old man pulled out for her.

"And to answer your question, I'm Dumbledore."

"What? But..."

"Aberforth. I don't usually get mistaken for my brother though."

"I didn't even know he had a brother." Holly admitted. "So why are you trying to help us. I've been wanted since November, it's now nearly February and you can get into serious trouble with pretty much anyone who sees you helping us."

"Which is why I don't intend to get caught. Do you two not have anything else you've been living off, or have you both gone several months with just your wands?"

"We'll I have a bag full of helpful horcrux destroying stuff but it's at Grimmauld Place."

"Oi pretty boy. Go to Grimmauld Place and get Potters bag." Aberforth demanded.

"Why should I trust you? We've both only just met you." Draco asked, looking at how defenceless Holly was in that moment.

"If I wanted you dead I would have left you out there for someone else to find you and turn you in. So go!"

"Shouldn't I get it?" Holly asked. "Seeing as it's mine and I know if anything has gone missing.

"No. Firstly, you're too injured and secondly if anything is gone, it's not coming back." Dumbledore explained.

"It's under the table in the kitchen. And watch out for the elf, he's rather unfriendly." Holly warned before watching Draco disappear.

"When was the last time you ate?" Aberforth asked, looking at the bloodstain that lead from Holly's mouth down the front of her shirt.

"I don't know. Like a few days ago. I've had to ration." Holly admitted.

"Probably why you've been coughing up blood. Strain on an already weak body doesn't end well." He replied, opening a cupboard and pulling out some bread and butter. "I'd offer you something nicer but this is all I've got right now."

"No absolutely not! I can get something from Hogwarts. They've got loads of food."

"I'm not having you die on me from starvation. I've seen you around Hogsmeade before- you don't look the strongest of people." Dumbledore grumbled as he passed Holly a few slices of bread and butter.

A mildly offended expression spread across Holly's face before she realised he was right. She didn't have anything to her, even Hermione had said how tiny she looked at the start of the year and that was when she was living off the Dursleys' leftovers rather than one meal over several days. However, she did consider herself to be stronger than her appearance let on.

"You were right about the house elf." Draco sighed as he apparated into the small building. "I think this is everything. Is there anything that could help your leg?"

"I don't think so. We'll have to find a way to see Madame Pomfrey." Holly replied, pulling her bag closer.

The first thing she saw when she opened it was a vial of bright blue liquid in a glass bottle. A bolt of lightning outside was shortly followed by a crash of thunder and without even thinking about it, Holly opened up the bottle and drank every last drop of the potion.

"What did you do?" Draco asked as Holly placed the bottle on the table. "Holly, what did you just drink?"

"Nothing." She replied as she pulled the Basilisk fang out of the bag. "Well that's useless isn't it." She muttered.

"Holly what did you just drink?" Draco snapped, forcefully turning Holly's head to face him.

"An animagus potion." She said guiltily. Draco couldn't form words for a couple seconds, only open and close his mouth.

"You're telling me that you had enough time to become an animagus! When did you do this?" He snapped.

"While you were all out looking for me." She mumbled, breaking eye contact from him.

"So you sat around for a whole month doing nothing while every single person in the Order of the Phoenix were on the lookout for you!"

Holly's cheeks burned bright red as she carried on rummaging through her bag for more things that could help. Draco stood up and reached around the back of his neck, seeming like he was trying to untie something.

"Just saying, I managed to get this back." Draco sighed as he threw Slytherin's locket onto the table.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know how to message anyone because I didn't know where you were and I didn't have an owl."

"If you're so wanted then why didn't you get yourself spotted somewhere so you turn up in the newspaper?" Aberforth suggested.

"That would probably end up with me either in Azkaban or dead."

"Well you seemed to survive death pretty well just now." Draco grumbled as he began pacing the small room.

"I'm sorry. I promise I won't run off again. I was being stupid and I'd had the locket on. Then I couldn't find you again."

"It's not your fault, I'm overreacting. I'm just happy your safe." Draco sighed as Holly pulled the mirror out of her bag.

"Sirius!" She exclaimed, frantically tapping on the glass. "Sirius, are you there?" She asked, just seeing darkness.

Draco and Aberforth went quiet so Holly could listen out for anyone. Suddenly, Holly could hear the sound of a drawer open and the annoyingly sweet voice of Umbridge.

"I need to do a thorough examination of your belongins Mr Black. If you would mind being quiet that would be much appreciated." Holly's body froze momentarily, she wasn't able to move an inch.

"Put the mirror down!" Snapped Aberforth but it was too late.

"Well well. Who do we have here? Miss Potter." Umbridge squeaked. "If I recall correctly, you are not only wanted by Ministry officials, but you also assulted me when I first arrived at Hogwarts. So you and me are not on great terms."

"Leave Sirius alone! He hasn't done anything! He was proven innocent!"

"Well that was before he murdered several people whilst looking for you. So legally, he will be going back to Azkaban. Along with Mr Weasley and Miss Granger." Umbridge said with a high pitched giggle. "And Miss Potter, you'll be next." She added, setting the mirror down so it was facing the table and therefore Holly couldn't see anything.

"They've got Sirius, Ron and Hermione!" Holly exclaimed, her breathing increasing.

"Holly calm down!" Aberforth said, sounding somewhat kind for the first time. "Holly Potter look at me right now."

"But..."

"They will be fine! Now you need to get to Madame Pomfrey and get yourself sorted out!" He said firmly.

"How do we do that then?" Draco asked skeptically.

"Through there." Aberforth replied, gesturing to the portrait of a young girl that had opened up as they were talking.

Holly stuffed everything back into her bag and put it on her back again. Draco helped her down the dark corridor with his wand lit between his teeth. As they reached the end, there was an open door. Cautiously, they peered around the corner and saw no one. As the two of them left, the door closed behind them and both took a mental note of what the portrait it was disguised as looked like. It was a painting of a woman and a man in a feild of flowers, quite a friendly picture and it was surprising that no one had blocked it off like other portraits in the castle had been.

It was night time by now and the corridors were empty. No one dared be out of bed after hours anymore so the two of them felt relatively safe from students. However, they had to navigate around the castle and avoid any Death Eaters that could be lurking around the corners.

"Open my bag and say Accio marauders map." Holly instructed, stopping in an extra dark part of the corridor.

"Accio marauders map." Draco whispered and the peice of parchment flew into his hand. He opened it up and saw nothing.

"What's this rubbish?"

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Holly whispered and the map began filling itself in. She found the two of them on the map and found out that they were on the first floor. "We only need to go down one set of stairs to get to the hospital wing."

Slowly but surely, the pair made their way over to the wing to find Madame Pomfrey. They had to take a break every now and again for Holly to tend to her leg but she refused to be carried since she hated it so much. Also, on their way down, Holly felt like she could faint any moment but didn't want to make a big deal so just passes off her dizziness as having to stretch out her right leg.

Draco silently opened one of the double doors to the hospital wing and sat Holly down on one of the pristine white beds.

"I'll get Pomfrey." Draco said, making his way over to the small room at the very back of the wing. He knocked on the door a few times and almost immediately, a woman appeared at the door.

"Mr Malfoy! What on earth are you doing here? Especially at 2am!" She snapped.

"Were you not asleep?" Draco asked in a concerned tone.

"Nevermind me! Why are you here?"

"It's Holly." Draco said simply, stepping out of the way to show the nurse the girl who was sat on the bed.

"Holly!" Pomfrey exclaimed. "I hope you know it's not safe for you here."

"It's safer for me here than it is for me alone. Or you know, actually fighting You- Know- Who. Or being dead."

"What happened to you?"

"Well first I died, then the cruciartus curse was used on me, then I got splinched, and then I started coughing up blood." Holly said, finishing off with a smile to try and ease the tension.

"You died?" Madame Pomfrey asked, raising one eyebrow.

"I was part horcrux apparently. So I had another chance to be alive. It's all very confusing- I don't really get it either."

"I don't usually need to treat cases of death but the other three I can handle." She said as she approached her medicine shelf, scanning it with her eyes before pulling out a few potions. "Give me your leg." She ordered before rubbing on one of the potions onto where Holly had been splinched. Before her very eyes, the cut on Holly's leg vanished and fresh, new skin replaced it.

"Thank you."

"Drink this for me." Madame Pomfrey said as she handed Holly a glass of a gloopy yellow liquid. "Now eat. You'll feel better- trust me." She added, filling a bowl with soup that she pulled out of a cupboard and heated with a flick of her wand.

Despite it only being a bowl of soup, Holly felt more full than she had done since she left Hogwarts for the first time. Madame Pomfrey also forced a bowl of soup down Draco, neither of them had realised how persuasive she could be before she locked the doors to the hospital wing and let them both sleep there overnight. She also threatened to keep them there for longer if they were caught awake because both of them needed restand alot of it.

As Holly drifted into sleep, she began seeing things. She wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it didn't seem good. She assumed it was something to do with Voldemort since that's what it always was. She couldn't see what he was doing or where he was or who he was with, she could just see a black and white blur with two red eyes. Everything was becoming more hazy.

A seering pain burned through the scar on her forehead and she shot bolt upright in the hospital bed. She saw the concern on both Draco and Madame Pomfrey's faces and they looked like they had been trying to wake her up.

"What did you see?" Draco asked as Holly leaned back on the headboard and rubbed her forehead.

"It wasn't clear at all. Everything was blurry."

"Didn't you say you were part horcrux?" Pomfrey asked, quickly pressing the back of her cool hand against Holly's scolding hot skin.

"Yeah. And then it was destroyed yesterday."

"That's probably why you can't see as well. The part of You- Know- Who that was in you is now gone."

"That does make sense." Draco agreed.

"Well now that I'm awake, what do we do? Especially since I can't see You- know- who anymore." Holly asked, trying to sit up properly.

"You rest. I don't care if you have horcruxes to destroy- you were dead less than 24 hours ago so you aren't leaving until I say so!"

"But what about if someone comes in here today?"

"No one ever needs to. Quidditch has been cancelled, there are no more clubs and no one can miss lessons for anything, not even if the cruciartus curse is used on them. And no one is going to be doing potentially dangerous things after school, they're all too scared. I don't blame them to be fair!"

"They can't do that! If people are terrified of everything then how are they meant to do anything properly?" Holly argued, like it would be any use telling this to the nurse.

"It's out of my control. Trust me I tried, they told me to deal with it or go home." Pomfrey explain. "Are you alright having injections?" She asked, trying her best to change the subject.

"Yeah. Why do I need one?"

"I have something for when people get nightmares. To stop them from having dreams. I thought it might be useful for you."

"That'll probably be helpful if I can't see what's going on in my visions."

Madame Pomfrey walked over to the office and unlocked it with the flick of her wand. When she emerged, she was holding a half empty bottle of clear liquid and a syringe with a sharp needle on the end.

"You might not want to have your eyes open. I don't want you to pass out from the needle."

"I'm fine." Holly assured her with a smile. "I think I can manage one needle after what I've already been through."

"Gryffindors." Draco mumbled as he rolled his eyes.

"This will feel like a slight pinch." Pomfrey said as her shakey hands attempted to fill the syringe.

"Do you want me to do it?" Draco offered as he noticed her struggling.

"You aren't a trained healer."

"I can fill the syringe for you."

"Alright then. You probably have steadier hands than me." She said eventually, carefully passing the bottle and the needle to Draco who filled it within a few seconds. He passed it back to Madame Pomfrey so she could inject Holly but her hands were still incredibly shakey.

"Are you sure you don't want me to do it?" Draco asked and a look of defeat spread across her face.

"It'll probably be better if you do to be fair. I know the both of you are going to want to go out and find horcruxes like Dumbledore asked you and I won't be there to do this for you." She admitted, passing the syringe back to Draco. He cleaned part of her arm with warm water before pushing the needle into her skin and injecting the clear liquid. As he pulled it out again, a single drop of blood rolled down her arm but nothing else.

"That lasts for a week." Pomfrey explained as she sealed the bottle tightly shut. "You'd make a good healer Draco. Maybe you should think abour it- especially if you're intending to be around Miss Potter."

"Hey!"

"It's true." Draco teased as he cleaned off the needle.

"You might want a few more of them. Incase one breaks at some point." Madame Pomfrey said as she handed Draco a small box of empty syringes. "And I know you won't want to stay here any longer because you want to go and do what Dumbledore told you to. So I guess you can leave as long as neither of you need any more help."

"One question." Holly said as she stood up off the bed, itching her arm slightly where the needle had gone in. "This is completely hypothetical but..."

"You have to focus." Madame Pomfrey interrupted. "It took your dad a week or two."

"But you don't even know what I was going to say!" Holly insisted.

"You were going to ask how to turn into your animagus form, weren't you?"

"How?"

"You have the same little look on your face as James did. And you said the exact same thing- _completely hypothetical_." She sighed. Holly beamed and was half tempted to give Madame Pomfrey a huge, heart- warming hug but eventually decided against it.

"Thank you." Draco said as both he and Holly disappeared underneath the invisibility cloak.

Still limping slightly, Holly lead Draco through the castle using the marauders map. It was currently breakfast so everyone was sat in the Great Hall. The room that was usually so full of life was deathly silent- not even Fred and George were making witty comments or setting off small firecrackers at the Slytherin table.

Holly looked to the empty seats at the Gryffindor table where she, Ron and Hermione would have been sat had it been a normal year however, there were just three gaps, three empty plates, three unused sets of cutlery, three untouched goblets.

When they reached the small side corridor where the portrait had been, they looked for the colourful flowers contrasting with the grey walls but found nothing. There was merely an empty picture frame. When Draco attempted to open it like a door it proved impossible and when he used magic, it still wouldn't budge!

"This is where the tunnel was, wasn't it?" He asked, looking around the corridor.

"Yes I remember seeing it on the map." Holly confirmed, studying it closely but only seeing her own name and Draco's.

After a few minutes of trying to figure out whether they were actually in the correct place to get out of the castle, both resolved to searching the room for any possible clues.

"Revelio." Holly whispered and several objects flew towards her. The first was an ancient looking key with two colourful stubs on it that looked like it could have sprouted wings from. The second was a note that seemed like a sort of riddle, the third was a string of words that seemed to all be mirrored and very hard to read and the fourth thing was a keyhole. Holly tested the key into the hole and it fit perfectly.

"So where do we put this then?" She asked, holding it up.

"Give me the riddle. I'll try and figure it out." Draco replied as he held out one of his hands.

 _Don't place me in the usual place,_

 _Place me in the place you feel is the place to be,_

 _Place me in the place that visits many places in order to get to it's final place,_

 _Place me around the frame to reveal your destination,_

 _Only now will you be free!_

Draco looked at the peice of parchment for a minute or so, reading through the clues at least five times.

"What does that say?" He asked, peering over at the scrawly handwriting.

"I'm not sure it's really hard to read. All the letters are too close together." She replied before looking up to see if there was anything to help her. "Should I try and rewrite it with the letters further apart?"

"Try that. It might help us actually be able to leave."

Holly picked up the quill she had found and dipped it in some ink. As she began to write, a sort of burning sensation spread across her arm. When she lifted up her sleeve, the letter that she had just copied out was digging it's way into her skin.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just poked myself with the quill."

Draco rolled his eyes as Holly carried on writing with the tourture quill. By the end of it, she had:

 _The thing that stays in one place but travels the world whilst doing it._

Etched into her arm.

"The thing that stays in one place but travels the world whilst doing it. What's that supposed to mean?" Draco asked.

"Well what doesn't move but also does move?" She asked, probably making matters more confusing.

"So it stays in one place and doesn't move from there but it also goes around the world." Draco repeated. "Maybe it's stuck onto something. What goes around the world?"

"Owls fly around delivering letters." Holly suggested as she noticed the owlery outside. "Get down!" She whispered, pulling Draco down by his jacket.

"What is it?" He hissed as he rubbed his knee after hitting it on the floor.

"Sorry. I saw someone in the owlery." Holly whispered. She crawled over to the window and popper her head up so only her green eyes were visible. There was a man wearing long black robes who seemed to be sending a small letter. It didn't seem too suspicious- infact the letter seemed so small that it couldn't have any information on it.

"I doubt whoever it is would be able to see us from here. Let's just try and figure out how to get out of here." Draco sighed.

"They're using Hedwig!" Holly snapped, standing up and leaning closer to the window. Suddenly, the cloaked figure turned to look at them from halfway across the grounds. Holly couldn't see their face, so the person must have just been facing out to where the owl would be flying. Nevertheless, Holly ducked down again.

"Holly we need to figure out how to get out of here."

"Hang on a second, Hedwig is coming over here." She replied puzzled. The figure had got another owl and was attaching a new note to it's leg.

"If she makes it by the time we've figured out this riddle, she can come. But you aren't being very helpful." Draco sighed, getting rather irritated with Holly's lack of helpfulness. She opened the window just enough for the snowy owl to fly in before looking at the riddle again.

"So it could be an owl. Letters get stuck to owls, around their legs." Holly said before noticing the window had shut slightly and Hedwig couldn't get in.

"Sorry to break it to you, but doors don't have legs."

"Letters are rectangular though. Doors are also that shape!" Holly said. "Something that gets stuck on a letter."

 _We know you're here._

"Draco. They know we're here!" Holly said, dropping the letter from her hands. Suddenly, a green light flashed across the grounds and hit the window. It was followed by another that, if she hadn't moved faster, would have hit her! A few more were sent flying over her head but she didn't want to show herself again so whoever it was would hopefully think she was dead! Draco helped her up off the cold floor after she had crawled out of sight of the window.

"Are you alright?" He asked as Holly brushed off some of the dust from her clean clothes.

"I'll be fine. Just a bit shaken up. So what is stuck on an letter?" She asked both Draco and herself.

"Nothing usually. Owls just take it wherever it needs to go."

"No they don't! Not in the muggle world at least! A stamp goes in the top right corner!" She exclaimed excitedly.

"How are we meant to reach that?" Draco asked, pointing to the top corner if the frame that was about a foot out of his reach.

"I can reach that." Holly said confidently as she dragged a table over to the empty frame. It wasn't the most sturdy piece of furniture but it would do.

"I'm taller, do you want me to put it on there?" Draco offered.

"I can manage." Holly replied, jumping to get the keyhole to fit onto the door. Surprisingly, it stayed put, however, as Holly landed back onto the table, one of the legs snapped and the whole thing toppled over.

"Can you now?" He teased, catching her before she hit the hard floor.

"I'm still alive am I not?"

"Only because I saved you. Anyway, have you ever heard of magic."

"Sometimes I feel like doing things the fun way." Holly smiled as she stood herself upright.

"The dangerous way." Draco corrected. "Reparo."

The table put itself back together and Draco climbed up onto it, turning the key in the lock. The picture frame filled itself in with the portrait of the couple in the flower field.

"Simple." He teased, pushing the table out of the way so the frame could open.

"Come on Hedwig." Holly called, holding her arm out for the bird to sit on. "Hedwig?"

"Holly someone's coming." Draco whispered as he heard footsteps coming down the corridor.

"HEDWIG!" Holly screamed, seeing the white owl perched lifeless on the windowsill.

"Holly in there now!" Draco hissed, grabbing both her and the marauders map and dragging them into the portrait hole which closed behind the pair, plunging them into darkness.

Tears rolled down Holly's face as she was separated from her belover owl. Hedwig had been the only thing related to the wizarding world that she had been able to see over her first few summers back at Number Four Privet Drive. She was the only thing reminding Holly that everything was real and not some made up dream. Now she was gone!

"She can't be dead! No!" Holly shrieked before Draco clapped his hand over her mouth.

"We don'tknow of they can hear us or if they can still get in!" He hissed, holding Holly round her middle to stop her from running out again and revealing the both of them.

"They've got her. They've got Hedwig!" She whispered as Draco pulled her down the tunnel.

"I'm sorry but we need to go. I know she was your owl and a great owl at that, but there's nothing we can do now!"

"No we can get her! I survived it twice!"

"Is your owl part horcrux?"

"No but neither was I the first time around!"

"Holly, she isn't coming back." Draco whispered as they reached the end of the long tunnel that lead to Aberforth. He tried to push against the door but it wouldn't open. When he tried Alohamora, it still remained tightly shut.

"Try blowing it up." Holly suggested but was promptly ignored.

"Lumos." Draco whispered, placing his wand between his teeth and still holding onto Holly so she wouldn't run off. He knocked on the wood, hoping that the person who answered was Aberforth and not some Death Eater who knew where all the secret passages were.

"What magical item exposed whom was going where when you were with me last night?" Asked a gruff voice that was most definitely Dumbledore's.

"What?"

"Answer the question and I'll let you in."

"We found out Sirius was going to Azkaban when we looked in the enchanted mirror." Holly said and a few seconds later, the portrait swung open.

"You two make a bloody racket don't you? I'm surprised the both of you aren't dead!" Aberforth admitted, closing the portrait hole and putting a protective enchantment on it.

"You could've told us about the riddle." Draco sighed.

"If you had been imposters, then you would have been caught and killed because you wouldn't have figured it out."

"And if we hadn't figured it out?"

"Then you would be killed."

"But we are Holly and Draco. You would have just been half responsible for our deaths!" Holly snapped. "And you were half responsible for the death of my owl!"

"Both of you are pretty smart kids. Potter grew up in the muggle world and Malfoy is rather level headed. Between you I knew you'd be able to figure it out!"

"So you took a chance on the one person who can kill You- Know- Who just so you could prove a point that we can figure out a riddle?" Holly asked, clenching her jaw. "You could have jeopardised the entire wizarding world!"

"But you made it out. So therefore, you're fine." Aberforth said calmly.

Holly let out an annoyed sigh before deciding that it was best if they leave and try and find somewhere safer.

"Draco we're leaving. We need to find Sirius, Ron and Hermione."

She grabbed onto Draco's arm and disapparated. The two of them returned to Grimmauld place since the place was always empty. As Holly placed her bag on the floor, someone emerged from the kitchen.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?" Molly Weasley snapped, looking back and forth from Holly to Draco. "Almost no one has seen any of you since October and if they have, they haven't said anything about it to me!"

"Sorry Mrs Weasley." Holly whispered meekly.

"You will be sorry Holly Potter! What possessed you to run away from Hogwarts without saying anything to anyone?"

"I had to do something. Dumbledore asked me to do it before he died."

"So the way you went about it was dragging Ron and Hermione with you and then leaving while they get taken off to Azkaban along with Sirius!"

"I would never leave them if they were in trouble!" Holly said defensively.

"Then why are you not all together?"

"Molly." Nymphadora said calmly.

"Not now!" She replied. "I don't want you out of my sight again, the both of you!"

"Molly!" Tonks snapped, grabbing Mrs Weasley's attention. "The poor girl is terrified. Just go back into the kitchen and lets all settle this together." She whispered.

Molly returned to the kitchen where Holly and Draco could see a few of the Order members. Nymphadora pushed Holly's bag out of the way qith her foot as she lead them in as well. Around the table were: Remus, Molly, Arthur, Mad- Eye Moody, two Weasleys whom Holly hadn't met before and Mundungus Fletcher.

"What's he doing here?" Holly asked, staring at Fletcher, her jaw clenched.

"He's part of the Order. Not much use if you ask me." Muttered Mad- Eye, looking at Fletcher with his good eye.

"He stole from Sirius! When I got here, the place was turned upside down!"

"That's an exaggeration." Mundungus bumbled. "None of it seemed to have any use so why shouldn't I sell it on?"

"Because it isn't yours Dung!" Nymph exclaimed. "What did you take?"

"Just this and that. Nothing too much."

"Get out." Remus said calmly. "If you're going to harm our chances we don't want you here."

"Alright then- I shall make my business elsewhere." Fletcher said, trying to make himself seem proud to be leaving but just sounding submissive.

"So where have the two of you been?" Asked Arthur, rubbing Molly's back in efforts of calming her down.

"We had to do something Dumbledore wanted me to do." Holly repeated.

"Elaborate." One of the two new Weasleys said. Holly knew it was either Bill or Charlie but both had scars so she wasn't sure which was the one who worked with dragons.

"He asked me to destroy You- Know- Who's horcruxes." Holly mumbled.

"He asked you to do what?" Molly snapped. "If that man wasn't dead he'd be getting an earful!"

"I didn't want anyone to join me but they came along anyway."

"That's because you died the other day and you wouldn't have been able to make it out by yourself!" Draco sighed, confusing the whole room.

"She died?" The other of the two Weasleys asked skeptically.

"Then she came back to life."

"Who came to get you when you had to be bailed out of muggle jail?" Remus asked, pointing his wand at Holly's face.

"What are you doing?"

"Answer the question!"

"It was you, Nymph, Kingsley and Mad... Alastor." She replied and Remus lowered his wand.

"Sorry. If Draco had seen you die then you might have been someone else who is claiming it's possible to come back to life." He apologised as he sat back down at the table.

"Are you alright?" Molly asked, drastically changing her tone of voice from how it was earlier. "You should be resting if you were dead not long ago! How are you even alive then?"

"Dumbledore explained everything to me. I was part horcrux and when You- Know- Who killed me, he wasn't exactly killing me but rather killing the horcrux inside of me." Holly explained as the room just sat stafing at her.

"Dumbledore is dead." Tonks said eventually.

"It was in this weird dream or something. But I controlled what I was doing and saying. And I know you all think I'm crazy now." She sighed.

"If you hadn't survived the killing curse once already, I'd say you're making the whole thing up." Mad- Eye said. "But even I don't know what's possible and what isn't anymore."

"I guess I just don't really know what's going on at any point." Holly admitted.

"Why don't you go upstairs and rest for a while." Molly smiled as she walked over to Holly and gave her a warm hug. "When was the last time you ate?" She exclaimed, feeling how tiny the girl in her arms was.

"Madame Pomfrey gave me some soup but before that not much for a long time."

"How did you get into Hogwarts?" Either Bill or Charlie asked. "Fred and George wrote saying the place was barricaded at all enterances.

"Obviously no one there checks all the secret passages. I'm assuming you got in through the One- Eyed- Witch passage." Remus smiled and everyone turned to look at him. "What?"

"How do you know about any secret passages at Hogwarts?" Arthur asked.

"I was best friends with James Potter and Sirius Black. Don't think I got through school without my fair share of rule breaking."

"And people trusted you to be a teacher!" Tonks laughed.

"Well you should go and get some sleep and I'll make some food." Molly said, patting Holly's back gently.

Holly sat up in her bed in the otherwise empty room. Draco had gone next door ao the both of them could get some proper sleep without interruption. Holly still had the effects of the dreamless sleep potion on her so she wouldn't have to wake up due to some nightmare that she couldn't even understand!

Her sleep was, for the first time in many years, peaceful. She felt particularly comfortable and actually warm, compared to the cold winter she had endured most of. She only woke up when the panicked shouting of Molly Weasley filled her ears.

When she opened her eyes, she was no longer curled up in a ball on her side, but her arms and legs were tucked underneath her and she was on her front. She could see the end of her nose sticking out infront of her and it didn't look like a normal human's would! As she got out of bed, she wasn't stood up on her two feet, instead she was stood on four paws. As everyone gathered around the door, she noticed that she was even shorter than usual.

Holly's animagus was a wolf!


	19. Jail time

Holly tried to say it was her as one of the two Weasleys, most likely Charlie since he was trained working with dragons so a wolf would be easy to manage, dragged her out of the room by the fur on her neck. In all fairness, going into a room and expecting to see a girl and seeing a wolf would be more than a little alarming!

"Stop!" Draco shouted as Holly whined in pain. "Let go."

"Are you crazy? This is a wolf!" Remus asked, clearly quite uncomfortable about the whole situation.

"Wolves aren't actually that dangerous unless they're hunting." Nymph said. "They're misunderstood most of the time."

"Just let go." Draco said as he confidently walked over to Holly. "Yeah, it's Holly." He confirmed, tracing his thumb over the patch of darker fur in the shape of a bolt of lightning just above her dark green eyes.

"How many crimes have you committed?" Molly exclaimed as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Quite a few but we can ignore that because I have the feeling that she doesn't know how to change back." Draco said softly as he looked into Holly's eyes, half expecting an answer. She attempted to say something again but it came out a a quiet bark.

"Well the only other two animagi we know are in Azkaban and Hogwarts so there isn't much help there." Arthur sighed.

Holly's ear perked up as she remembered the book about animagi that was down in the basement. Maybe that had something on being stuck in her animagus form. She weaved past everyone and reached the top of the stairs, hesitantly going down each step, constantly feeling like she would fall. She jumped down the last few steps and ran round the side, pawing at the door to the dark basement. Draco came up behind her and unlocked the door to allow her in. It took Holly a while to get down the steep spiral staircase, especially with limited light but when she finally reached the bottom, she immediately ran over to the rickety old table with the potion ingredients on the shelves above it. Her head was the same height as the table so she couldn't see onto it but Draco picked the book up and began going back up the stairs to the main part of the house.

As Holly went up the first few steps, she lost her footing and slipped to the bottom again. What would usually be a wince, if she was a human still, sounded like a whine as she hit the floor. Draco turned and saw the wolf, a usually menacing seeming animal, in a heap on the floor. He tucked the large book underneath his arm and walked back down the stairs. Since Holly was already relatively small and under fed, he was able to scoop Holly up in one arm and balance her on his shoulder in order to carry her up the staircase.

As they reached the main body of the house, Draco placed Holly on the floor again and opened the door into the kitchen.

"There's a book about animagi. Hopefully this will have something to do with changing back." He announced to the room as he began scanning down the contents page.

 _If you are new to becoming an animagus, you may become stuck in whatever form you have taken. In order to return to your human form, you must focus on your human self (having a picture of yourself to look at may be useful). No one in recorded history had remained in their animagus form for over two weeks unless on purpose so the change will not be permanent however, research has shown it is possible to be stuck for up to two months._

Draco read the information aloud and a sinking feeling filled Holly. She could be stuck like this for two months! She couldn't do it- not for two months! She focused intently on herself. Her furless skin, her bright human eyes and her waist length hair. As she opened her eyes, she could still see the wet nose infront of her.

"Does anyone have a picture of Holly?" Remus asked, looking around the room to see if there were any baby photos that Sirius had hung up at some point.

"We don't need one." Nymphadora said as she made herself look like Holly, right down to the shade of green her eyes were and the exact placement of her lightning bolt scar.

Holly stared up at Tonks. It was a strange sensation, looking up at yourself and attempting to become them again. She squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them again, she was looking eye to eye at herself, back to her human self. On her face were her circle framed glasses and all her clothes covered her body rather than the black fur. A large smile spread across her face as she was now more than 3'6" tall and people were considerably less violent towards her. Tonks' hair resumed it's bright bubblegum pink colour and her eyes faded from emerald green.

"Is there anything else illegal you've been doing or is that it?" Arthur asked, looking slightly torn. "Because if any of this gets out, I'm losing my job."

"Well we snuck into the Ministry and removed ourselves from the systems." Holly blurted so hopefully it would have less of an impact than if she spoke at a normal rate.

"And that's why you can use magic. Of course. Why wouldn't you have done that?" Arthur sighed.

"I'm sorry. It's just Dumble..."

"I'm not blaming you. Just next time you go on a dangerous adventure- tell someone!"

Holly was about to say that Fred, George and Ginny had known all along but decided that it was best if she didn't because Ginny wasn't exactly there to say anything and she didn't want to rat out the twins.

Molly put food out for everyone, making sure to pile Holly and Draco's plates high. It ended up with the plate nearly weighing the same amount as Holly did but she wasn't ungrateful- even though it was a little intimidating being faced with that much food to eat by herself!

She only managed to polish off a third of the plate of food before she knew she would explode if she had one more bite. She adored Mrs Weasley's cooking but she had a tendency to overfeed her whenever she was round. Holly didn't blame her- she didn't exactly look well fed, even if she was! If she ever went to the burrow for Christmas, Molly would always slip a few extra potatoes onto Holly's plate and Holly would pretend not to notice.

After Molly and her negotiated about how much she needed to eat, Holly went back up to her room to try and get some more sleep before deciding what to do next. If she wanted to save Sirius, Ron and Hermione, she would need to be able to control which form she was in- animagus or human. However, this could take alot of time- alot of time that she didn't really have because it was only a matter of time before all three of them slipped into insanity!

It was only after half an hour that she realised she wouldn't be able to get any sleep so she just sat in bed, focusing on shifting from one form to another. No one disturbed her because they all thought she was asleep so it was the perfect time to practice since she didn't have to focus on anything else. It was only when she saw the bright moon shining through the window that she realised how long she had been practising for. When she had started, the sun was just begining to set and now it was halfway through the night! However, the important thing was, she could now transfigure in a few short seconds. Obviously it wasn't as good as she had seen McGonagall or Sirius transform, but was apparently extraordinarily progressive according to the book!

With the effects of the dream killing potion still on her, Holly slept peacefully, most likely fluctuating between a wolf and a human. When she woke up, she was still herself but the first thing she did was practise transforming and transforming back again. She only did it a few times before there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." She said, standing up to make it seem as if she had been doing something productive.

"Are you alright?" Draco asked, not in a concerned way but just to see how she was doing.

"I'm as alright as I can be. I can actually get some decent sleep now, which is always useful!"

"Have you been practising transforming?" He asked, looking at the top of Holly's head.

"Yeah. What's wrong?" She asked, feeling the top of her head where there were two animal ears poking up from her hair. "Right." She focused on making them disappear until Draco's mouth curled up into a small smile.

"I know it's not what you want to hear right now but what are we going to do next?" He asked, sitting down in the window sill.

"Well we need to get them out of Azkaban. Sirius won't have much of an issue, it's just Ron and Hermione." Holly sighed as she squeezed next to him, staring out of the window into the small garden. "But I'm the only one who can go in. The dementors would sense you more than me."

"Then we both go, you rescue them and get them back to me so we can disapparate. I doubt they'll be strong enough to do it themselves." Draco suggested as he curled up in a ball like Holly.

"I guess that's the only way we can do it. Do you know how to do a patronus charm?"

"I've tried it a few times but it's never very strong."

"Do you want me to teach you?" Holly asked, scanning the room for her wand.

"If you think it would be useful."

"Ok so all you need is a happy memory. The happiest one you can think of. You don't need to tell me but focus your mind on it." Holly explained as she grabbed her wand from the dresser. "Expecto Patronum." She announced and a stream of silvery white light burst from her wand.

"Can it be anything?" Draco asked. "Even if it didn't stay happy for that long?"

"As long as what you're thinking about is happy then yes- I assume so. I think about my parents and that didn't stay happy for very long." Holly shrugged as she stepped back slightly.

"Expecto Patronum." Draco said, flourishing his wand in the air. Much to his distress, a silvery white ferret started running across the floor and climbing up onto shelves. Holly couldn't help but laugh since the ferret running around the room showed so much resemblance to the ferret Draco had been turned into by Mad- Eye Moody the previous year. Of course it hadn't really been Moody but either way it was funny!

"Don't laugh!" Draco complained, pushing Holly's shoulder gently as the ferret vanished.

"I'm not laughing! What are you on about?" Holly replied, trying her very best not to smile. "See."

"Why does my patronus have to be a freaking ferret?"

"It looks just like you. Same colour and everything!" Holly teased. "Come on. It's not that bad. You could have had a blobfish."

"First of all, what's a blobfish? And secondly, what's your patronus?" Draco sulked.

"It's just a really ugly fish. And my patronus is a stag."

"How come you get a stag and I have a ferret?" Draco sighed, finally letting a smile creep across his lips. "My name literally means dragon!"

"And my name is a type of Christmas leaf berry thing. What's your point?" Holly asked as she patted Draco's back.

"My point is I wanted a dragon! Just imagine a dragon puffing out and attacking the dementors!"

"Well I like ferrets so it can't be too bad can it?"

"I guess it's fine. But I'm still going to complain about it!" Draco replied with a small laugh to himself.

"Breakfast is ready." Molly said as she opened the door.

"Thank you Mrs Weasley." Draco said as he tucked his wand into his pocket. "We'll be right down."

The pair went down to the large kitchen/ dining room area and were greeted by piles of toast and jam. Almost everyone had gone, leaving only Molly, Arthur, Bill and Charlie Weasley.

"I don't think I ever properly introduced myself. I'm Bill, Ron's older brother." Said the more scarred out of the two.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Holly." She replied. "And you must be Charlie." She double checked and got a nod in reply.

"We decided to stay with you until you feel the need to leave again." Arthur said. "It makes it easier because you two can't go and buy food."

"Thank you. You could go back to the Burrow if you want." Holly said as she took a slice of toast and began nibbling it.

"If I could have it my way you two would be coming to the Burrow with us and not leaving!" Molly sighed. "But I know you want to go and save the Wizarding world so you'd go off anway."

Both Holly and Draco stared nervously down at their plates. They didn't want to tell them that they were planning to run away that very night, but keeping it a secret wouldn't be a good idea. Neither wanting to be the one who said it, they both stayed silent and ate their toast.

After breakfast, Holly went upstairs and attempted to sort out her bag. Tipping upside down, she found clothes she'd forgot she owned, a few relatively useful textbooks that she must have got from Hermione and the locket that had been stuffed in her bag when her and Draco were at Hogwarts. She fastened the locket around her neck and tucked it into her clean t- shirt. She packed everything back up because she wasn't sure when they'd be coming back to Grimmauld Place after that night.

Mrs Weasley made a large meal of shepherd's pie for dinner. Once again, Holly and Draco avoided the subject of leaving the entire time. It was only when the Weasleys had gone to sleep and it was silent in the house that they mentioned it.

"Are you ready?" Holly asked as she opened the door to Draco's room. He was sat on his bed, a small white ferret scuttling around him.

"Yeah." He said shortly, the ferret vanishing into thin air. "Just practising one last time."

Holly pulled her shoes on just before they left the house in order to make as little noise as possible. Silently, she opened the door and slipped out into the night. Draco locked the door behind him with a quiet whisper and a tap of his wand.

Holly focused on the word Azkaban. She didn't know what it looked like or where it was so it wasn't much help thinking about it like that.

"You do realise you're not going to be able to just apparate into Azkaban, don't you?" Draco whispered.

"Definitely thought about that."

"So we don't have a clue where it is."

"Potentially problematic." Holly smiled nervously.

"Great. So we don't have a clue how to actually save them!" Draco sighed as the streetlight above them began to flicker.

"Wait a minute!" Holly exclaimed before clapping her hand over her mouth because it was the dead of night and everyone was asleep. "One of the textbooks."

She pulled a few things out of her bag before seeing a rather feeble looking book. _Most deadly criminals of the Wizarding world_ was written on the front in a swirly font. As she opened the cover, the street lamp plunged them into darkness.

"Lumos." She whispered, scanning the contents page until she found something on Azkaban itself.

"Turn the light off." Draco whispered, his wand raised. "Turn it off and run."

"What why?" Holly asked as she packed her things up.

"Just do it. I don't think we're alone."

"Nox."

Everything was dark and the gentle wind was making the leaves in the park rustle. Holly had her wand raised without a clue where it was pointing.

"Draco there's no one..."

"STUPEFY!"

Seven flashes of red light hit Draco and Holly from all angels. Holly's body tensed up and she couldn't move at all, she just crumpled to the ground. One last spell was thrown at her. A purple beam shot at her head and she was knocked unconscious.

When she woke up, she no longer had her warm clothes on and her bag wasn't on her back. As she looked around, she wasn't anywhere farmiliar. Everything was grey and bleak. The sky was covered in dark clouds and the moon shone from behind them, allowing just a small amount of light in. Rain hit the cold stone ground outside of Holly's small sheltered area. As her vision came back, she noticed tall metal bars stopping her from leaving. She scrambled over to the bars and pulled on them but they wouldn't budge. She went to reach for her wand in her pocket but was only met with the stiff material of a striped jumpsuit.

"Help!" She screamed, rattling the bars of her cell. "Please someone let me out!"

She could still feel the locket hanging around her neck which was good since she couldn't afford to lose it again. As her rattling became less and less violent and she rested her head on the cold iron bars, a strong chill drowned her body. Every bad memory filled her mind, ranging from when she lost 150 points from Gryffindor in her first year to her own death! She felt like she was losing part of herself as a smokey, grey dementor swooped past her cell. She lost every single happy memory she had, it was almost as if none of them had ever happened.

It took a few minutes for the dementor to go away. Holly suspected that this was because she was new and had more happy memories for them to feed on. However, they would have soon gone through them all since not alot of good things happened to her!

Suddenly, a great silver sheep trotted over to her cell with an auror following behind.

"Get up!" He snapped. "Now. We need to fill in legal documents."

Holly stood up and was grabbed and taken from her cell. She tried to look around and see if Draco was anywhere doing the same thing but her head was thrust down so she was looking at the ground. After around five minutes of following the silver light of the sheep, she reached a room that was a nice bit of shelter from the pouring rain and dementors.

"Drink this." The man ordered as he pushed Holly down into a chair. "Do hurry up, we don't have all day."

Holly picked up the vial of clear liquid and drunk it. It didn't taste very farmiliar but had a distinct smell.

"Did you run away from Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry on 31st October 1995?"

"Yes." Holly said, physically unable to lie.

"And why did you do so?"

"Because I was told by Dumbledore that I needed to destroy You know who's horcruxes."

"And why would he trust a fifteen year old girl to do that?"

"I don't know."

"Stand there and hold this." He snapped, slamming his quill onto the desk. Holly picked up the sign he had gestured to with shaking hands. As she stood where he had asked her, she tripped on the long legs of her striped jumpsuit and the sign dropped out of her hands, cracking in two as it hit the floor.

"Keep yourself together! I've been here for four days waiting for you to wake up! Your little boyfriend was conscious by the next morning. The least you could do it not break the bloody sign!" He growled, putting the wood back together again with a flick of his wand and pushing it into Holly's arms. She lost her balance and collided with the wall. She hit her head off it and went slightly dizzy from the impact.

"Are you always this bloody stupid? No wonder you were caught!" The man muttered to himself as he adjusted the camera to be Holly's height.

"Well it took you long enough to find me." She replied, hands gripping tighter around the sign she was holding.

"Shut up!"

"No I won't shut up! I've dedicated the past 4 months of my life to protecting the wizarding world and now I'm getting locked up in a fucking prison cell!" She yelled.

"I said shut up! I need your pretty face to stay still for just a few seconds so we can get a shot of you for our documents!"

"No!" Holly screamed before throwing the sign at the Ministry official. She hit him on the head which made him go dizzy and walk into the desk. Holly took this opportunity to run out of the room. The rain was still hammering down which made the floor slippery and the moon was fully hidden behind the thick, black clouds. She tried to make it to someone's cell: whether it be Ron, Hermione, Sirius or Draco's. She just wanted to know where someone was. She could hear the occasional blast of a spell hitting the stone walls from behind her, but none of them had a chance to hit her before she slipped on the wet stone staircase, hitting her forehead off it and sliding down to the bottom of it. She felt a warm sensation trickle down her face and when she touched it, her hands came back a deep red.

The scar on her forehead had been split as well as a fresh cut being opened. The cold raindrops were a slight soother but couldn't relieve her from much. It wasn't the worst pain she had ever felt but it was a close second and having to block her eyes from being filled with blood wasn't helping much. As she saw the man approaching her with his wand raised, probably about to stun her or use the spell that knocked her out again, a low growling came from behind her which was stortly followed by a flash of lightning and roll of thunder.

As she turned her head, she saw a large black dog growling at the man who had interrogated her. She wanted to run up and hug the dog since she knew that her Godfather was alright but this was neither the time nor the place. Without warning, Padfoot launched himself at the auror and bit into his leg, making it too painful to walk. He also picked up the man's wand in his mouth, making him look like a regular dog with a stick. This would have been funny if Holly wasn't sat in Azkaban prison with her head split open. Padfoot immediately ran over to Holly and helped her up. She had a slight limp from where she had twisted her ankle falling down the stone steps but could walk pretty much completely normally.

When they had reached the small room where Holly had had her photo taken, Padfoot became Sirius and sat Holly down on a chair immediately. There was a small area that had a sink, countertop and a toilet that the Auror must have used when he was there for a few days waiting for Holly to wake up. Without a word, Sirius dampened a cloth and pressed it to Holly's forehead.

"I'm extremely disappointed in you Holly!" He exclaimed with a glimmer in his eye. "Have I not taught you to not get caught?"

A smile flashed across Holly's face.

"Obviously you didn't do it very well. Anyway, what have you done to get yourself back?" She replied with a smirk.

"Chasing after you you little troublemaker!"

"Learned it from the best." She smiled as Sirius hit her on the shoulder gently. The room was sort of like a safe haven from the dementors where all happy thoughts could flood your mind again.

"How's your forehead?" He asked, lifting the cloth off, only to put it straight back on to stop emmense amounts of blood from dripping everywhere.

"About as good as it can be." Holly sighed. "It's not the worst it's been."

"I'd consider myself to be rather good at head injuries. When you were a baby you managed to crawl, walk or fly into just about everything and everyone. It wouldn't surprise me if that scar was just you colliding with something sharp."

"I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that I've nearly outgrown that habit." She smiled.

"Well as soon as you've stopped leaking brain cells, we can go and find everyone else. Probably won't be as easy since you make alot of noise pretty much wherever you go!" Sirius said as he went to soak another cloth in water. "Not sure how we'll get them out since only certain people can use any magic here. Otherwise I would have escaped with Ron and Hermione the first night we got here. Also, you might just want to stay here- the dementors can't detect animagi as easily."

"About that..."

"What?" He asked, swapping the cloths on Holly's head and looking at her expectantly.

"I may or may not have become an unregistered animagus using one of the books in your basement and then practised being able to turn in and out of it and the Weasleys know I'm not in school and horcrux hunting and so does like half the order and Mundungus Fletcher has been stealing from you while you've been away..." Holly said without taking a single breath.

"You are just like James." Sirius smiled as he pulled Holly into a tight hug. "He was like a brother to me. I even got it written on his gravestone."

"I did wonder why it said that he was a much loved brother. It made me wonder why I couldn't have stayed with his sibling instead of Vernon and Petunia." Holly laughed.

"Has your head stopped bleading yet?" Sirius asked, wanting to change the subject because out of that small room, James' dead body was the main thought that filled his head.

"I don't know. Has it?" Holly said, removing the cloth from her forehead.

"A bit. But I think we should just tie it up and go rescue the others. Was it just you that got caught?"

"No, Draco was brought here as well." Holly said as she remembered the Auror referring to him as her boyfriend.

"Ok. Oh and what's your animagus form? It's not like a giraffe or something is it?"

"No I'm a wolf."

"That's great." Sirius said, lifting off the damp, blood- stained cloth from Holly's head and tying a new dry one on her. He changed from himself into Padfoot and waited expectantly for Holly to do the same. It took her a few seconds to do so, but she managed to become a wolf, the locket still around her neck and the strip of cloth wrapped tightly around her head.

Padfoot pushed the door open and Holly followed him out into the night. Everything was now colder and Holly felt all happiness leave her body again. She followed her Godfather, assuming that he knew where Ron and Hermione were. When the pair reached the steps where Holly had slipped, a pool of blood had formed at the bottom, mixed in with rainwater. The Auror was lying on the floor peacefully, seemingly unconscious from blood loss where Sirius had bitten him. When they went down a staircase to the level below where Holly's cell had been, there was a small amount of shelter from the rain if they stayed close enough to all the other prison cells. However, Holly would have much rather got wet than gone near the other people locked up. She didn't know who half of them were but they didn't seem terribly friendly. Also, the closer she got to the cells, the more likely the dementors would attack her, so she stayed in full exposure to the rain.

Eventually, Padfoot stopped infront of two cells. In the first was Ron quivering in the corner, his ginger hair stuck up on end and his freckles covered with dirt. He was staring at a patch on the floor, seemingly without reason. Holly tried to say his name but it just came out as a menacing bark. He snapped his head up, and scuttled into the corner more as Holly began climbing through the bars.

"Get away from me!" He shouted, assuming that the wolf would be able to understand what he was saying. Momentarily, Holly showed who she really was in order to not be attacked.

"Don't panic. It'll make things worse." She said before turning back into her animagus form. She scanned the cell, hoping to find something to get him out. However, she was just greeted by the glint of the moon whichever way she looked. It took a while for her to clock why this was but soon enough, she noticed that the moon was being reflected on something shiney. She transformed back into herself to see if she could reach it but it was too high up.

"Give me a boost." Holly said, beckoning a puzzled Ron over to her. He interlocked his fingers to form a step for Holly who pulled the shiney object off of the high ledge, it nearly impaling her as it fell. The object was almost a miracle to her. She picked it up off of the floor and traced a finger across the flat part of the blade.

"The sword of Gryffindor was left to you and your family wasn't it?" Holly smiled as she passed it to Ron who feebly held it in his weak hands.

"Yeah it was." He replied, staring at the immaculate blade.

"It's only right if you do the honours." Holly said, gesturing to the lock on the iron bars. Ron lifted the sword as if he hadn't spent the past week or so having the life sucked out if him and sliced right through the metal of the lock a smile spread across Holly's face as he ran out of the tiny area as fast as he possibly could.

"Every wizard should have a sword! Forget the drumstick we call a wand, this is the thing we need!" He exclaimed, holding the weapon infront of him.

"Please don't wave that around." Holly said, gently lowering the sword.

In the next cell, a hopeful looking Hermione was rocking back and forth in the middle of her cell. Ron pushed past both Holly and Padfoot and smashed the lock, causing a scream to escape from Hermione's mouth. Immediately, she ran over to Ron and collapsed into his arms, both of them shaking.

"Now we just need to find Draco." Holly sighed, looking up and down at the millions of cells he could be in.

"Well Ron and I were in the cells next to each other so surely you and Draco would be near each other." Hermione said, still quivering in the tall boy's arms.

"What about Sirius?" Holly asked, noticing that both adjacent cells were occupied.

"They put me in my old cell. Very considerate that they didn't take the poster I had down. Gave me something to look at." He said proudly. "But either way, the dementors will be here very shortly so we should probably get going."

He became Padfoot again and began to lead the way up to where Holly's cell was, seeming as if he knew his way around the place perfectly. Holly turned into a wolf and padded along after him before being stopped by Hermione.

"You're an idiot. I hope you know that Holly." She said shortly before continuing to follow Padfoot. When the group reached where Holly's cell had been, she noticed that not only was the door to her cell unlocked, but the one next to it was also wide open.

"Draco!" She called, wondering if that was indeed his cell that he had somehow escaped from.

Faint sobbing came from around the corner in the silence that followed and when Holly was met with the crier, she realised that it was a very dishevelled Draco Malfoy. His usually sleek blond hair was a puffy mess and his shiney silver eyes were a dull grey colour, almost mirroring the cloudy sky.

"Draco!" She exclaimed in a breathy whisper, rushing to the boy's aid. "Look at me. Now. You're alright. We're going to get out of here!" She said, cupping his face to force him to look at her. She didn't get any words in response, only a pained nod.

"How did you get out?" Hermione asked, wrapping herself tightly in her prison jumpsuit.

"When you have hair as fabulous as mine, you tend to have a couple of these lying around." Draco said in a way that tried to distract himself from the overall feel of depresson as he pulled a black hair grip out of his hair. "Parkinson gave me a few at some point."

"And I can tell we're related." Sirius smiled. "We can keep this one. He has a sense of humor!"

In order to get everyone's possessions, the group had to go all the way down to the bottom of the prison before going back up the many stairs to the top to escape again. By the time they had made it to the very bottom, they had endured several dementor attacks that they were able to pretty much escape from unscathed and were tired since it had taken the remainder of the night to get all the way down. Even though the dementors wouldn't be affected by the slight sunlight that was trying to peep through the thick clouds, it felt alot safer during the day. At least everyone could somewhat see what they were doing.

At the bottom of Azkaban prison, there were cages upon cages of dementors. There weren't any cells or prisoners but this floor was by far the coldest and most depressing. A large fortress was hidden behind a sealed door. Ron tried to open it but it wouldn't budge.

"Yeah that's locked. You might want to move out the way for a second." Sirius said. Once Ron was put of the way, he backed up a little before charging at the door. Somehow, he managed to blow it straight off it's hinges and revealed drawers upon drawers of prisoners possessions.

"Everythings in alphabetical order. Everything you had on you will be in your drawer." Sirius explained as he found his near the start of the rows upon rows of names.

Holly, Ron, Hermione and Draco all started down the corridors, looking for their own names. Hermione, being a _G_ , filtered off first and Ron, being a _W_ , carried on after Holly and Draco had reached their lockers. There weren't many drawers in between them because their last names were relatively close in the alphabet.

"Holly..." Draco said nervously.

"Yeah?"

"For the past few days, all I've been able to see is you dead." He whispered, a glossy sheen forming over his eyes. "And I want you to promise me you won't get into too much trouble because I don't think you'll get another chance."

"I promise you I won't die on you again." Holly whispered, a flicker of a smile flashing across her face as she pulled Draco into a tight hug as she rubbed his back gently. She felt him burry his head into her knotted black hair that was all split and wiry at the ends. Her face was burried into the harsh material of his striped jumpsuit that he had covered his hands with as much as possible to try and conserve heat.

The first thing in Holly's drawer was her wand and the clothes she had been caught in. She pulled them out and stuffed them into her bag, not caring too much about getting changed, only wanting to get out as fast as possible. She tucked her wand into her pocket and rolled up the sleeves and legs of her prison attire before slinging the large backpack onto her shoulder. Everyone returned to the entrance of the room, feeling a little safer now that they had their wands even though they wouldn't be able to use them since they were still in Azkaban.

In order to avoid the dementors as much as possible, the group had to stagger when they went. Sirius, Ron and Hermione went first, with Sirius in his animagus form and around five minutes later, Holly and Draco followed behind them. Hopefully, this was going to make the dementors less attracted to them because there were less souls for them to feed off. For the most part, this worked but by far the worst part was getting past the cages as they left the sanctuary of the possessions room.

As they reached the top floor again, they noticed Padfoot, Ron and Hermione all tucked up into one corner. Holly became a human again and soon found out why, a dementor glided up behind her and over her shoulder, sucking all the joy out of her. In a split second, Draco had pulled her away from the ghostly creature and over to the rest of the group who had gathered near a breaking wall. One by one, starting with Hermione then Ron then Holly then Draco and finally Sirius, thet climbed up, slotting their hands and feet into crevasses in the crumbling wall. Holly felt slightly dizzy from the encounters with the dementors over the course of the past few days, combined with the head injury she'd enflicted upon herself.

"We need to jump." Sirius announced as the dementor began floating up after them.

"What?" Holly exclaimed but not getting a reply or explanation before a hand gripped around her upper arm and forcing her to jump off the end of the prison.

Holly knew she could swim, she had done so when rescuing Ron in the second task in the triwizard tournament the previous year, but that hadn't been the ocean just below a storm and it also hadn't been just after she had suffered from major head injuries that had been worsened by her soul being partially sucked out. Also, before she had been wearing a swimsuit and not the heavy material of her jumpsuit and the bag on her back.

As she hit the water, she was hit in the face with a large wave of water. Her whole body ached from falling from such a high distance and when she tried to take a breath, she swallowed a large mouthful of salt water. The additional weight she was trying to carry was also making matters worse and the temporary bandage that had been tied around her head had slipped off, exposing the mostly healed wound to the water. When she tried to take another breath, a colossal wave burried her deep into the water, stinging her eyes and making her lungs fill with water. Holly rapidly felt herself slip into unconscious yet again but one of the last things she saw was someone reaching their hand out to save her.

But then she was gone...


	20. Ready to fight

Holly was just about conscious enough to feel a hand grip onto her arm. However, after that, she was out. The next thing she knew, she was sprawled out on the floor somewhere, her chest being compressed and air being forced into her lungs. She could feel the salt water coming up her throat and coughing it up burned. When she tried to sit up and see who was helping her, a hand rested on her shoulder and guided her back down to the floor. When she was about as comfortable as she could be, she looked up into the eyes of Draco Malfoy who had an reassured smile spreading across his face.

"Gave us a right scare there." He said as he counjered a bandage from nowhere and cleaned off Holly's head again.

"I'm alive am I not?" She replied with a slight smile, still breathing quite heavily.

"Barely. No one else is here and I assumed it would be safer than going back to Grimmauld Place since the Ministry knew we were there." Draco explained as he neatly bandaged the scar on Holly's head up to prevent exposure.

"Where are we?" Holly asked, trying to look around.

"At the Burrow. I hope the Weasleys don't mind us coming here, it was the first other place I thought of."

"I'm sure they'll be alright as long as we're alive. We might need to tell them that we're here though."

"I'll go after you're sorted out. I'm pretty sure all this physical trauma isn't good untreated." Draco explained as he helped Holly up off the floor and sat her on a chair. "I've got your bag. It's all wet but we should be able to rescue most of your stuff."

"Thanks." Holly said as she rung out her striped jumpsuit from water. "Why were you crying?"

"What? When?"

"When we found you. Why were you crying?"

"I wasn't." Draco said shortly. "Even if I was it wouldn't matter that much."

"Well it clearly does because you were crying! And now you're trying to cover it up!" Holly teased, a playful smirk settling on her face.

"Shut up!" Draco smiled as he began unpacking some of Holly's things so they would dry out.

"I can do that myself. I'm not immobile!" She said as she slipped her wet shoes off and put them in a patch of rare February sunshine.

"Yes you are. You can't move because that's what I've decided." Draco replied as he pulled a perfectly dry piece of parchment from the bag. "Now how does this work?"

"Is it the marauders' map? That thing probably has every defensive spell possible on it!" Holly asked, holding out her arm to take it. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The map began to fill itself in and reveal everyone at Hogwarts. Most people were in their respective common rooms, including Fred and George who always seemed to be up to something no matter what the situation was! Just from looking at the map, Holly could see how dull the school had become. There weren't any of the usual teachers patrolling the halls, the corridors were lined with various death eaters. Holly looked to where the defence against the dark arts classroom was and noticed that there was no one familiar there. Delores Umbridge had obviously left since she had been the one to trial Sirius and probably Ron and Hermione aswell. Instead, two people, both with the last name Carrows, were stood there with someone, most likely a student. Holly didn't know what was happening but presumed it couldn't have been good!

She placed the map down on the table next to her as she scanned over the rest of the map.

"I'm going to find the Order. Don't move please, I don't need you to die again!" Draco said in what should have been a joking tone but he looked deadly serious.

"Yeah. I'll stay put!" Holly replied as Draco walked out of the tall house, leaving it silent. When he got further away from the house, Holly heard a crack and everything was silent. Immediately, she stood up to grab her wand before sitting down again. Even though there was a protective charm around their property, she had heard someone talking about it at some point, she didn't quite feel safe. In all fairness, nothing ever seemed to go right whether she was alone or with other people, but being alone adds the element of fear into the mixture!

Her eyes flicked back to the Marauders' map and noticed the student the Carrows had been with was gone. She checked the corridors nearby but his name wasn't anywhere. Surely he couldn't have gone too far! Then it dawned on her, the only time someone didn't show up on the map was when they were either in the room of requirement or if they were dead!

It was only a few minutes before Holly heard the distant crack of people apparating nearby. She peered out of the window and saw Molly Weasley marching towards the house, the rest of the Weasleys who were staying at Grimmauld Place along with Draco, Sirius, Ron and Hermione trailing behind her. When she opened the door to her home, she looked like she was about to cry and scream her head off all at the same time.

"I hope all of you know how angry I am right now!" She announced. "I specifically told you two not to leave and what do you go and do? Get taken away to Azkaban!"

"Sorry Mrs Weasley. But we are back now. And we are still in one piece!" Holly wimpered.

"Hardly!" She snapped, gesturing to Holly's forehead.

"That's just my scar." Holly said unconvincingly.

"I'm not letting any of you out of my sight, for definite this time! I'm fed up with being stressed about the five of you!"

"By all means do come along next time!" Sirius said before retreating back into silence as Molly shot him a death glare that could give anyone nightmares!

"There will not be a next time. I'm not even going to let you go back to Hogwarts!"

"We're safer almost anywhere than Hogwarts right now. I watched a kid die on the map." Holly squeaked, nodding at the piece of parchment that was still on the table. "But we will need to go back."

"I won't allow it!"

"Mum, Draco said the last few horcruxes were at Hogwarts." Ron piped up. "Dumbledore gave Holly a task to do and I'm not letting her do it on her own again. That just ended badly for everyone!"

"Why does it have to be you?" Molly sighed as she hugged each of them in turn.

"I wish I knew." Holly whispered as she received a hug from the warm, dry woman.

"I think that all of you should go to sleep. You've been through quite alot." Mrs Weasley said, stepping out of the way of the stairs. "As long as none of you run away again. And trust me, you're in for it if you do!" She called after them.

Holly and Hermione went into one of the many rooms in the Burrow. When they entered, they were surrounded by Quidditch merchandise and smiling pictures of Ginny with the other Weasleys. This gave both of them a harsh feeling of guilt as they trailed their wet feet into the room.

"I don't want to stay in here." Hermione whispered nervously as she bit her lip. "It doesn't feel right."

"Why don't we get changed and then go share with the boys?" Holly suggested as she lay out her wet clothes on a chair before drying them off with a simple spell.

"That would make me feel more comfortable." Hermione admitted.

"I don't feel right in here either. And it's my fault she was... Yeah, it was my fault."

"It wasn't you!"

"Then who was it?" Holly asked. Hermione hesitated for a moment, her mouth slightly open as if she was going to speak before closing it again. "Exactly."

When both girls were warm and dry, they walked up a few more flighflights of stairs so they could invade the boy's room. Much to their surprise, they seemed to be getting on alright. The sun was setting outside the room so it was starting to get dark inside. Draco flicked his wand and lit several candles that were placed around the room.

"Are you two alright?" Ron asked as he shuffled up to the end of the bed to make room for them.

"We're fine. We just didn't feel right sleeping in Ginny's room." Hermione said as she curled up in a ball next to Ron. The colour drained slightly from his face as he was reminded that his little sister was no longer alive.

"Of course. You can both share with us." Ron offered, still scarily pale.

"Thanks." Holly said as she sat perched herself at the end of Draco's bed.

Holly struggled to get to sleep. It wasn't so much that she was reliving the trauma from the past few months, it was because she saw that kid die on the map. That student probably didn't want anything to do with Voldemort or the war. He wanted to stay out of it all. But he ended up getting caught up in the wrong thing at the wrong time. This war wasn't just between her and The Dark Lord, it was much bigger than that! People who shouldn't be involved were getting involved and dying because of it!

Eventually, she drifted off into sleep because her body was begining to physically shut down from how tired she was! It didn't seem too long before she was awake again and judging by how it was still dark outside, it had probably been only an hour or two. Holly went to climb out of the warm bed she was in to sit by the window, because she had little chance of getting a good bit of sleep at that moment but when her eyes got used to her gloomy surroundings, she noticed that she wasn't in the Burrow any longer.

She walked over to where Ron's window should have been but was greeted by ice cold metal bars that stung her hands to touch them. She rattled them slightly, they made the same sound as the ones in Azkaban had. Without warning, a dementor swooped up to her face and began sucking the little joy she had left out of her soul. As she fell to the floor, she felt the cold melt away from her and it was replaced by the crackling of a warm fire. She sat up and looked around the room, it appeared to be empty but she could hear the patter of bare feet on the cool marble floor.

Lights went up on the room and infront of her was Voldemort. Without thinking, Holly began to run at him, ready to tackle him to the ground before killing him. He didn't move, nor did he try and kill her. However, after a few short moments, Holly ran into something invisible. She hit her hand on the barrier and it didn't make a noise. There was no reflection from the light on it so it couldn't be glass but that wasn't the important part, more lights had appeared around the room and Holly was surrounded by a circle of people. Everyone she knew.

Without a single word, Voldemort went around everyone and shot a green light at them. No one tried to put up a fight. They didn't even flinch. Every last one of them merely accepted death with open arms and crumpled to the floor. Finally, once all her friends were dead, and Holly's throat was sore from screaming, Voldemort turned to look at Holly with his blood red eyes. He raised his wand and the barrier faded away. Holly turned to run but her body wouldn't move. She was glued to the spot, staring death in the face yet again. She couldn't save the rest of the wizarding world from Voldemort- this was going to be the end of her, for real this time!

As the green light flew towards her, everything seemed to go in slow motion. As the light hit her, a stabbing pain shot through her abdomen and merely milliseconds before she hit the hard, marble floor, she bolted upright, trying to scream but thankfully not making a sound.

Draco had shaken her awake and was holding his lit wand in his left hand. Holly squinted and looked around the small room. Ron and Hermione were asleep in the other bed and the candles gave little pockets of light to the room.

"You're alright. Everything will be fine." Draco whispered as he put his wand down and pulled Holly in for a comforting hug. Holly could feel his body heat radiating off him and onto her cold shivering one. She could feel her scar throbbing but didn't want Draco to let go of her so she could give it a little rub that would do absolutely nothing to help it.

"I forgot about that potion Madame Pomfrey gave you. I'll go and get it quickly." He whispered as he stood up and grabbed his wand. Holly curled up into the tightest ball she could as she awaited Draco's return. When he did come back, he was holding a sharp needle in one hand and the half empty bottle in the other. With his wand between his teeth, he filled the syringe with the dream killing liquid and injected it into Holly's arm. Immediately, she felt a tiny bit more relaxed. She let Draco wrap his arms around her tiny body and sway side to side ever so slightly as if she were a baby he was trying to get to go to sleep. It made her feel warmer inside, despite the slight draft coming from the ajar window. She wondered if this was what it was like to have 100% of someone's love and care. Of course she had the Weasleys, but they were a big family and have to give their attention to the other seven of them. Then there was Sirius but, no matter how much she knew he cared for her, she knew that he still sort of saw her as James and he would see the person who cared for him rather than the person he cared for. But Draco only really joined the three of them on their mission because of Holly. At least that's what he had let on- Ron and him had never really seen eye to eye and Holly doubted they ever truly would and he was brought up to hate Muggleborns like Hermione. So by process of elimination, he would have wanted to protect Holly. He had also proved this by saving her multiple times throughout the year. It didn't seem like much at first, begining with sparing her the grief of having to deal with a dead owl that he was meant to kill. But eventually, it escalated to putting his whole life on the line for her. It made Holly feel like she had a purpose rather than just being in the centre of a war she never asked for!

Holly wasn't entirely sure how long she was sat with her face nuzzled into Draco, but it did feel nice to have his fingers gently de- tangle the knots from her long hair that would constantly blow in her face, making it even harder to see at times.

It must have been a while but eventually, Holly stopped shaking and her breathing steadied itself.

"You alright now?" Draco whispered, looking at her directly in the eye.

"Yeah I'm fine." She whispered, nodding her head and rubbing her eyes. "Just a bit shaken up really."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's nothing- honestly. It was just a nightmare."

"As long as you're sure." Draco said, rubbing Holly's back softly.

Holly lay on the soft matress, curled up in a ball on her side so she was facing the window. She wanted to leave everyone out of all of her issues but knew she'd have no clue what to do yet again and everything would be ruined. And either way, Ron had the sword of Gryffindor and she needed that to destroy the locket. But then she realised that after the locket, Draco had said the final few horcruxes were at Hogwarts! Without noticing, Holly drifted off into sleep, being woken up by the sun rising through the window the next morning.

As she rubbed her eyes, she noticed that she was the first awake. Draco was still sound asleep in the bed next to her and Ron and Hermione were showing no signs of waking up soon. She checked the time and realised that it was understandable that they were still asleep because it was 6am. Hermione would only get up that early if she hadn't quite finished the homework from the previous night, Ron never woke up that early and she still wasn't sure about Draco. She stood up and walked over to the window, hoping that the many fields outside the burrow would give her a small bit of advice on her messed up life however, she was given none.

Holly went and sat back on her bed and let out a sigh as she flipped the locket, that had been placed on the bedside table, over in her hand. She couldn't wait to finally destroy the burden it carried along with the fragment of Voldemort's soul it contained. It was around another hour or so before the other three began to stir. Holly insisted that she hadn't been awake for very long but she knew that Ron, Hermione and Draco were merely pretending to believe her. Luckily, Draco stayed silent about her panic attack during the night even though Ron and Hermione should have probably found out about it. The four of them discussed where and when to destroy the final horcrux they had in their possession because it wasn't a great thing to pull out at the breakfast table and destroy. They wanted it to be quite far away from the Burrow incase something happened like with the water when they were destroying the cup however, they weren't going to give everyone the grief of looking for them because they'd run away yet again. It was a shame that they'd spent most of this mission running away from the people who were on their side but they needed to do what must be done in order to get away with everything they had done!

They decided that in order to not be locked in the house for their own safety, that they should just go out as soon as possible. Hermione and Holly crept silently into Ginny's old room and got dressed into clean clothes that Mrs Weasley had washed for them before meeting up with the boys downstairs.

"If we're quick enough, no one will know we left." Ron whispered as he picked the sword of Gryffindor up off the kitchen table.

"Well let's make it quick- doesn't look particularly warm outside still." Hermione shivered as she looked at the leaves blowing on the trees outside.

The four of them got to a safe distance from the house so that they were far away enough incase anything dangerous happened but close enough so no one would be able to find them if they woke up.

"I assume we just stab it." Holly said as she took it off from around her neck. "I mean- it won't open so how else would we?"

"Ron, you have the sword." Hermione said, taking a step back.

Holly placed the locket down on the ground and also stood back, preparing herself for another black cloud of some description to erupt from the locket as Ron hit it, but instead, Ron was just sent flying back and no harm came to the horcrux.

"What went wrong?" Draco asked. "You did hit it, didn't you?"

"I'm not that bad at aiming!" Ron snapped as he stood up again and tossed the sword to the ground.

"Wait! If that's Slytherin's locket, then it might be opened with parcel tounge. The Chamber is and that was built by him." Hermione exclaimed as she noticed the serpant- like _S_ engraved on the locket. The other three turned to look at Holly and she opened her mouth to tell it to open but she couldn't make the correct sound.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked.

"I can't do it." Holly said as she held her hand to her throat, hoping that she just needed to cough and then it would be fine.

"What do you mean? We all saw you do it in second year." Draco frowned.

"And to open the Chamber." Hermione added.

"But I can't speak parceltounge anymore. I could try and fake it but..." She trailed off.

"Would it even work?" Draco asked.

"Maybe. I just need to remember what ig sounds like."

A weird hissing noise came out of Holly's mouth. It didn't sound as impressive or fluent as she hand made it sound before, but it sounded somewhat like a snake. Obviously enough for the locket to open. Just as they had suspected, a dark mark sprouted from out of the horcrux but was quickly replaced with a full sized cloud of Voldemort. In a circle, everyone Holly cared about appeared- much like in her dream she had suffered the previous night. The cloud of smoke turned to look at her before waving his hand and every single person simultaneously dropped dead.

"No!"

"This is what will happen. You can't beat me. I will kill every person you love, before ending with you!"

The smoke cloud came rushing towards Holly, forcing her to stumble backwards and trip over her undone shoelace. Her wand fell out of her pocket and she wasn't within reaching distance of the sword so she had no way of protecting herself apart from squeezing her eyes shut and placing her hands over her ears as she curled into a ball.

She stayed in a ball until the gentle hand of Hermione rested on her back. She left it there as Holly uncurled herself and took a few deep breaths.

"You alright?" Ron asked as he picked up the remains of the locket.

"Yeah I'm fine." Holly shrugged as she stood up. "Just a bit shaken up."

"You know we won't leave you, don't you?" Draco asked, almost as if he could read Holly's mind. "Personally, I don't care if I die or live. I just want the right people to win."

"But..."

"Holly, what happened last time you were alone?" Hermione said. "I know it's a bit harsh, but you tend to get lost without at least one other person to tell you that your impulsive decision is a bad one."

"Harsh, but true." Holly admitted with a shakey smile.

"Why don't we go inside now this thing is dead because it's bloody freezing!" Ron suggested and everyone ran for warmth, Draco carring the sword and Ron the destroyed horcrux.

Inside, everything was still asleep so the kids were safe from Molly's wrath. However, they knew that the only thing she could do to them was give them more vegetables at dinner since she wasn't going to abuse anyone. She would probably tell them off yet again but the four of them were quickly getting used to that.

"So what are the last two then?" Ron asked.

"I know they're in Hogwarts. Just don't know what they are." Draco said. "So we have very little information but we did figure out that You- Know- Who has chosen things from Slytherin and Hufflepuff so he might choose something from the other two houses and also a living thing can be a horcrux."

"So still very little to go on. You do know Hogwarts is a huge castle don't you. It even has a room that can have an endless amount of things in it!" Hermione winced.

"It's a tiny bit more than nothing." Holly sighed.

"You're leaving again aren't you?" Someone asked from the doorway.

"Bill, not now." Ron complained. "We need to..."

"If you're going to destroy one of those things, maybe think about not doing it within viewing distance. I don't think mum would be too happy about it."

"Do we look like we have a choice?" Holly snapped. "I'd rather be sat in charms right now with a smile because I got a good test score and my parents sent me some chocolate frogs but that's not going to happen."

"Mum won't let you go alone again. I'll help convince her to come along." Bill smiled with a sly wink as he helped himself to an iced bun and left the room.

"That was pleasantly unexpected." Hermione murmured.

"It can be next to impossible to convince mum to do anything too dangerous."

"Well there's no point in stopping him from trying. Anyway, if we sneak out again- we can take whoever is willing to come with us." Draco suggested.

"That's gone badly every time any of us have tried to do it." Hermione pointed out. "Something tells me it'll go wrong again."

"I guess your brother is going to have to do alot of convincing then." Holly said to Ron.

The four of them went upstairs and hid away in the boys' room that was kept quite dark from the curtains being closed. It was just about edging on spring so it was beginning to warm up but not much. Silent planning went ahead as the quartet sat in a circle, trying to figure out what could be the final horcruxes. In total, there had been the diary, destroyed in their 2nd year, the ring Dumbledore had gotten rid of, the cup and locket that they had destroyed over the year and then, Holly. Voldemort obviously didn't know about her since otherwise he would have killed her twice then and there. That meas that there were two left- the only clues they had were it could be representative of a Hogwarts house or it could potentially be a living thing. It was most likely that the object wouldn't be from Gryffindor since Godric Gryffindor's sword was destroying them- so their best bet was Ravenclaw.

"What about the last one then?" Ron asked once they had settled on the idea of Ravenclaw.

"I don't know, what's You- Know- Who's favourite animal?" Holly asked with a small shrug.

"I don't exactly have a fact file on him like you'd find in a magazine about celebrities." Hermione frowned.

"All we know is he's going to want to keep whatever it is safe. So he'll either hide it or keep it with him at all times." Draco said, taking quick notes.

"I doubt he can keep a living thing contained for very long so if he has a pet with him, we kill that." Ron said.

Just as he finished his sentence, the door opened and Mrs Weasley entered the room, all four of them immediately tried to look as innocent as possible despite there being a sword propped up against the bed and a destroyed locket on the floor next to it.

"We're all coming with you. I'm not going to let you go alone." She said simply. "We're all coming."

"Mum... No!"

"Ronald, I'm not going to let you, Holly, Hermione or Draco out of my sight!"

"But it will make it obvious."

"Do I look like I care? Everyone is coming and that's final!"

"That's fine Mrs Weasley. Just as long as you stay safe." Hermione said as she elbowed Ron in the stomach.

"Just tell us when you're leaving. And make sure you all know what you're doing!" Molly said before leaving the room.

"In all fairness, we are going to need You- Know- Who there if we want to kill him." Holly said to a slightly grumpy yet nervous looking Ron.

"I think Weasley just wants to get it over with." Draco said.

"No, I'd happily stay fighting for another two years straight, it's just I already lost my little sister and I don't want to lose anyone else!" He snapped, glaring at the pale boy across the room. "And also, remember who's house you're staying in- so maybe have the courtesy to call me by my real name!"

The room was plunged into silence, no one said a word for about a minuted, they just looked at each other before awkwardly casting their gaze down to the floor.

"I didn't think." Draco murmured, breaking the silence.

"I can tell."

"I hope you two realise that if we fight amongst ourselves everything is going to seem so much harder." Hermione said rather sternly. "So even though you two have alot of issues with one another, you need to put them aside."

"Just please last until the end of the war- I don't know if it will end well but after that you won't need to spend any time together." Holly sighed. "And if we spend all our time arguing then we'll never figure anything out!"

"With the information we have, I don't think we're getting any further." Ron said, looking at all the pieces of information they had written down.

"So this is it? We go back?" Hermione said, also trying to think of something else.

"I think we're going back." Draco agreed.

"Along with half the wizarding population in the form of my family." Ron joked, desperately trying to lighten the mood. Everyone laughed ever so slightly before the room reverted into quietness. They knew that as soon as they were spotted at Hogwarts, everything would kick start!

It was nearing the evening by the time the four of them had plucked up the courage to say everyone had to leave and everybody was ready and prepared to fight. For even more backup, Sirius had gone and collected Remus, Tonks, Mad- Eye Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt. In total, they had 14 people to attempt to sneak into the castle- Fleur Delacour was staying in the house as well since she had come to work at Gringotts along with Bill.

Holly grabbed everything she needed from her bag such as her wand and the invisibility cloak before people began disapparating into Hogsmeade village, with one person returning each time to inform the others that they were safe. Surprisingly there was very little security on the village but the place also seemed deserted.

Holly and Sirius were the last two to disapparate since out of the group, they were the most wanted. Moody had come back to tell them that everything was safe before leaving again which left them on their own.

"Holly..." Sirius started just before they left. "Please don't get yourself killed."

"I won't- not making any promises about severely injuring myself though." She joked with a flicker of a smile.

"You wouldn't be a Potter if you didn't!" He chuckled before placing a hand on Holly's shoulder. "I know we are going into a war but just stay safe."

"I promise... Ish." Holly smiled before both of them apparated into Hogsmeade, ready to fight...


	21. Start of a battle

No snow was stuck to the ground as there had been previously but there was an eerie breeze creeping through the alleyways. As planned, Holly and Sirius made a run for Aberforth's house in order to get into Hogwarts. It was very cramped in the small room- even with half the group going through Honeydukes- so the portrait that leads to the castle was opened and everyone began making their way down the long dark corridor.

When they reached the other side, the door was blocked off so someone had figured out that people had been getting into the castle that way. Tonks shot a quick blasting spell at it before putting a protective enchantment over the room.

"So now what?"

"We need to find the final two Horcruxes. It will be much easier to find the first one if we aren't spotted- we suspect the other is a living thing though so You- Know- Who will need to be here." Holly explained, making sure the whole group was completely caught up.

"Well let's start with the object, you said that there has been a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff object so far and judging by how you've been destroying everything with Gryffindor's sword, then I'd say Ravenclaw is our best bet." Shackelbolt deduced, "so if we catch up with the other half and we can pair up from there."

Silently, the group of seven crept through the castle, making sure Tonks didn't crash into anything and cause a commotion. Luckily, none of the boarded-up portraits could give them away. As they reached the one-eyed witch passageway, Holly could just about make out the shadow of everyone clustered in the corridor. Moody assigned everyone pairs, seven groups, therefore, one for each floor, and places in the castle to search. Holly and Draco made their way to the fifth floor, discussing a plan under their breath.

"Ravenclaw common room," Draco said before clapping his hand over his mouth. "There's got to be something in there." He whispered as he approached the door that looked more like a plank of wood with a decorative eagle nailed into it.

"You realise it's after hours, everyone will be in there!"

"You have an invisibility cloak do you not?"

Holly pulled the invisibility cloak out of her jumper pocket that Hermione had put an undetectable extension charm on and draped it over her's and Draco's heads, hoping that the Eagle would be a little more forgiving than the fat lady had been when she refused them to enter Gryffindor Tower.

"Where do vanished objects go?" The eagle asked as it sprung to life as Holly knocked on the door.

"Somewhere other than where they were vanished from," Draco replied, trying to push the door open.

"Why should I let something I cannot see into my Tower?"

"Because I want to get in."

"Want or need?"

"I'd say need because my invisible friend and I need to find something otherwise the entire wizarding world could be ruined, and that includes you and your precious Tower so open the door."

The wooden door creaked open to reveal a room that had its curtains drawn to prevent any of the sunset's light from spilling in and Draco pulled an exasperated Holly into the Tower.

"I've got used to that door over the past few years. I visit Luna sometimes, she's actually quite nice." He whispered as he scanned the room for anyone lurking in the shadows, climbing out from underneath the cloak when he saw no one.

"Then why did you never pair up with her at the start of the year when the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor wasn't here so our years had to pair up?"

"I'd have never heard the end of it from Pansy. She hates her, thinks she's weird."

"Tell her to stuff it," Holly said, lowering her voice slightly and scanning the bookshelf that could be of any use.

"Believe it or not, before I ran away to help you, I cared about what everyone thought of me, why d'you think I never made friends with you after you rejected me on the train?"

"Excuse me, I was just awake and looking for some midnight trolls that woke up early and heard my name a little bit ago." A floaty voice said from the stairs.

"Luna." Holly sighed as she whipped her head around, ready to be ratted out by a snobby seventh year trying to get sleep.

"Holly! Whoever were you talking to?"

"Sorry, it was me," Draco announced as he emerged from the shadows, carrying two rather hefty books.

"Oh, hello Draco. What brings the two of you back to Hogwarts then? You've been gone for the majority of the year."

"We need to find something, possibly an artefact that belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw." Holly explained, "I don't suppose you had any idea of what it could be."

"Well there was this one time, a few years ago, someone asked the Grey Lady about her mother, she didn't say too much other than how the last thing she had owned from Rowena had been ruined with dark magic."

"Did she say where it was?" Draco asked.

"She said someone had hidden it, somewhere he was certain no one would ever find it, it was what he needed."

"Any chance you know what it is?"

"I'm not sure, but I do remember the Head Girl telling all the first years the tale of the lost diadem on our first night."

"Luna, you are brilliant! I think you may have just helped us find just what we're looking for!" Holly exclaimed.

"Thank you! If you need me again, I'll be looking for those pesky midnight trolls." She smiled before ascending the stairs.

Overwhelmed with excitement, Holly raced out of the Ravenclaw common room, prepared to search for the lost diadem while Draco put away the two books he had pulled off the shelf away.

"I thought I heard someone down here." A low grumbly voice murmured, followed by the cackling laugh of someone stood next to them.

"You should know by now that being out of bed after hours comes with severe punishments, that is unless you have a pass we know of, but the only student that had one of them... Ran away, betrayed us." The cackling woman chuckled, her voice causing the same effect as nails on a chalkboard.

"Now give us your name." The deep-voiced person said, taking a step forward to look at Holly in the light of his wand. He stopped dead, trying to process the information he had just received.

"It's Potter! We've got Potter! Get the Dark Lord! She must be eliminated!" The man yelled, beginning to drag Holly away. Unable to reach her wand out of her pocket and not having the body strength the wriggle free, she had no choice but to follow the two people who she assumed were death eaters.

As she was dragged down the staircase, Holly noticed Draco desperately looking for her.

"Someone help!" She screamed before the woman cast a silencing charm over her before striking her with the cruciate curse that brought back a flood of bad memories from the start of the year. Draco spotted her but instead of running down the stairs towards her, he went upstairs, as if he were running away. Eventually, Holly had been dragged all the way to the dungeons. It was freezing and smelled putrid, the whole placed had a somewhat damp feeling like it hadn't been cleaned properly and everything was left to be taken over by the Black Lake. Holly was thrown into a room that she would have recognised as Snape's office but was now a cold room without any furniture or windows.

"Stay in there, any funny business and we'll know!" The man said before slamming the door and locking it with a simple charm.

"How stupid are they?" Holly muttered to herself as she pulled her wand, invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map. She watched their footsteps walk up the stairs and make their way to the main staircase. When they got far away enough, Holly unlocked the door and put the invisibility cloak on before leaving the dungeons.

As she made her way up the first staircase, she saw five pairs of feet on the map: Draco Malfoy, Alistor Moody, Sirius Black and Amycus and Alecto Carrow, who she assumed were the two people who had caught her. Looking up the stairs, she could see bright lights that looked like hexes and jinxes flying on the floor above her. Packing the map up and stuffing it carefully into her pocket, Holly raced up the stone steps and blasted a hex at one of the two Carrows from underneath the cloak, she wasn't entirely sure which.

Clearly startled by the hex from behind, the high pitched cackly woman whipped around, only to be met by three spells from the other three dulers. Hufflepuff students, who's dormitories were only one floor below the duel had begun to flood out of the common room, startled by the noise of the fight. Unaware of who the three people standing up to the Carrows were, hushed cheers echoed around the ground floor. It was only when the second sibling had been defeated in the four against one match that any of them realised who the three of them were.

The whole school had become a little shaky whenever Moody had been mentioned in the Daily Prophet ever since the word had gotten out that the previous year they had actually been taught by Barty Crouch Jr. Draco Malfoy had always been one of the school bullies and was overall an intimidating person for anyone who didn't know him properly. Then there was Sirius. A shrill scream came from somewhere in the crowd, followed by the name Sirius Black rippling back and forth. Due to all the commotion, several other staff members whom Holly didn't recognise, but didn't seem like normal Professors.

"Students, in your dormitories now!" Boomed a voice from the back of the pack of people who Holly had assumed were almost entirely death eaters.

"But Professor-" Came the reply of several students.

"I said now!" She snapped, pushing to the front of the group.

"Ah, Professor McGonagall, it's been a while since I saw you out of your classroom." A cold voice snarled. "One could have thought you were hiding."

"I would much appreciate it, Fenrir, if you left my school entirely so I could return it to what Hogwarts is meant to be: a safe school for young witches and wizards to learn magic!" McGonagall snapped, lips pursed and jaw clenched.

"Your school? Why I believe the school now belongs to Severus Snape." Fenrir growled as he began to circle McGonagall. "But that doesn't matter for now-"

"What is it?" Someone from the crowd asked hastily.

"Professor, look at the stairs, something seems a little off, doesn't it. You see, there are three people here, plus the Carrows. There are the damp footprints of the Carrows here that go all the way up the stairs and stop at their feet where they were ambushed by these three." He said as he lead McGonagall up the stone staircase, everyone else watching on silently. "But you see, there's another set of footprints over there that stop right here. Now, if we do the maths, that's one too many sets of damp footprints from the dungeons."

Holly had to put her hand over her mouth to muffle the sound of her rapid breathing and her heart felt like it was about to explode as Fenrir looked straight at her with his barely-human eyes. His arm reached out, brushing the fabric of the invisibility cloak that he ripped off of Holly.

"Get the Dark Lord." He said coolly. "Don't bother with Snape, it'll just waste time!"

Fenrir began dragging Holly into the same dungeon the Carrows had put her into, she didn't bother kicking and screaming, she knew it wouldn't do her any good, she turned back and saw McGonagall holding Sirius from running after her, she also noticed that at some point, the rest of the fourteen people had gathered on the stairs, all of them hiding at the top of the stairs so the death eaters wouldn't know how many people there were.

Unlike the Carrows, Fenrir entered the room alongside Holly, locking the door behind him before emptying her pockets and tucking the contents into his own clothes. Holly opened her mouth to speak but no words came out of her mouth.

"Wondering what I'm doing are you?" Fenrir asked, walking closer towards Holly and backing her into a corner. "Well, the moon should be rising right about now and guess what little girl- it's full."

Fenrir took a step back and turned away from Holly as she began to shake, not only had she figured out that he must be a werewolf, but she realised that Remus was somewhere in the castle, obviously not realising that it had been a month since the previous full moon.

"Remus!" She managed to say, fear spreading across her face.

"Remus Lupin? He's here is he? The last time I saw him he was only four. Maybe I'll say hello again."

"You monster!" Holly yelled and as she did, the seams on Fenrir's clothes began ripping. She had nowhere to escape, the cold, wet stones against her back wouldn't move, no matter how hard she wished them to. She could hear Fenrir's bones cracking and moving position. Squeezing her eyes shut, Holly wished for an escape, as she opened her eyes, she was face to face with a grimacing beast. Two years previously, she had witnessed Remus' transformation but compared to Fenrir, he looked calm and well-groomed.

The remains of his ripped clothes lay on the floor in a large pile. Holly's eyes flicked down to look at them and she noticed something long and wooden peaking out of one of the dishevelled pockets. Without hesitation, she lunged forwards, Fenrir's claws catching on the side of her face and picked up her wand, throwing a series of stunning spells at the werewolf. Dazed, Fenrir ran into the wall where Holly had been stood, leaving her a chance to get out.

"Bombarda Maxima!"

Running up the rather slippery steps, she expected to see everyone as before, however, the whole place was in silence and the doors to the Great Hall had been shut and visibly barricaded. Remembering that Remus had been assigned the seventh floor, she assumed that he would still be there with Tonks since everyone except for Moody, Sirius and Draco were out of sight to the Death Eaters.

As she began her sprint up the stairs, an echoing howl confirmed Holly's suspicion. Changing from her human self into her animagus form, she was able to run ever so slightly faster since the stairs were not too steep. By the time she had reached the top of the many staircases, only just missing falling off of one of them that moved whilst she was on it. On the seventh floor, the only portrait that remained was the fat lady who let people into Gryffindor Tower. There was a large scratch mark and the lady was shrieking and pointing down the corridor. She only squealed louder when she saw Holly, assuming that she was another werewolf.

Bounding down the corridor, Holly noticed a conflicted Nymphadora Tonks who had managed to suspend herself from the chandelier hanging from the ceiling so she wouldn't have to hurt Remus to protect herself. In order to catch the werewolf's attention, Holly mustered a howl which in hindsight may not have been a good idea since she looked like a wolf herself, causing Remus to want to claim his own territory.

Leaping towards her, Remus attempted to sink his teeth into her neck, almost succeeding in doing so, however, Holly darted out of the way. Quickly gesturing to a large wooden door, Holly dodged another attack as Tonks fired a spell at it to open it. Holly pushed against the much larger beast in an attempt to get him into the empty classroom but he was too heavy. Somewhat reluctantly, Tonks hit him with several stunning spells which weakened him, making him easier to push into the classroom. After slamming the door, Holly transformed back into herself and placed some of the protective charms she knew over the door that Remus was desperately scratching at. Tonks added to them before pulling Holly into a quick embrace with a short thanks.

As the two of them started to make their way down the stairs, Holly remembered all the students who would be in their dorm rooms, unaware of what was going to happen.

"You go ahead! We need to make sure all the students are out of here!" Holly said, waving for Tonks to go ahead. "I'll meet up with you soon, I just need to get everyone out."

"Excuse me! I need to get in!" Holly shouted at the portrait of the fat lady.

"Holly Potter! I suppose this has something to do with you, with you running away and all."

"Can we save conversations for later, I need to evacuate all the students."

"I need the password."

"Periculum autem comr," Holly said, somehow remembering it from earlier that year.

"Very well then go ahead."

The common room was half full of students, mainly scared younger students who had most likely been woken by the noise with a few older students anxiously comforting them.

"Holly?" Seamus Finnigan exclaimed.

"Yes, I'm here. Do me a favour and wake all the boys up and tell them to come in here."

"What-"

"Just do it. Everyone line up in your year groups for me!" She snapped before running up the stairs yo the girls' dormitories.

Most of the girls were already awake from all the commotion going on outside the Tower but were still in bed. Sounding more than a little intimidating, Holly yelled at all of them to get out of bed and into the common room.

"Line up in your year groups! You all need to use the floo network to get out of here, floo powder is up there!" Holly shouted at the full room. "Everyone write down their name and address on this paper, someone will check you're all safe after everything is over."

"What's going on?" A scared first year, who was cradling her cat, asked.

"Nothing you need to worry too much about. Everyone 17 and over can stay and fight since your of age but I really don't recommend it." Holly added, hoping just a few people would stay just so that she had some backup. "Head boy and head girl are in charge!"

As Holly left the room, a mixture of murmurs and shrill cries about fighting lingered behind her. She saw in the corner of her eye that a few 6th and 7th years were following her. As she made her way downstairs, she saw Tonks running out of the Ravenclaw common room followed by a lot of people who couldn't possibly all be 17.

"Everyone here said they were either of age or could help. I didn't want them to come but they didn't give me much choice." She said when Holly gave her a puzzled look.

The growing group of students followed Holly and Tonks down the stairs until they reached the Great Hall. It seemed that since they had rounded up all the students, the fourth floor and down had been cleared since no one came running at the mass of noise echoing down the corridors.

The grand double doors to the Great Hall were now open but no one was going in or out and the whole floor seemed eerily silent. Casting a silencing charm over all the nerve filled students, Holly whispered for two people to go to the Hufflepuff and Slytherin common rooms to open them up and evacuate the students whilst the rest hid in the kitchens until further notice.

Popping out from the crowd, Luna raised her hand as if to volunteer herself. Reluctantly, Holly agreed and Tonks took Fred and George to the Hufflepuff dormitories.

"Dura vita," Holly remembered from when she was chasing Draco into his dorm room at the start of the year. She said it about as quietly as she possibly could have, very much aware that an unconscious Fenrir Greyback was just down the corridor. The wall opened up and as quickly as she and Luna possibly could, they got into the dark common room.

"Holly, I think I might know where you need to go to find Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem," Luna said rather brightly.

"Can you go and wake all the girls up first? Tell them all to come in here for me."

"Of course."

Holly tried to open the door to the 1st year boy's room but it wouldn't budge. It seemed like you could only open it if it was your own room. Pulling her wand out of her pocket, she fired a quick blasting spell at the door, which blew it off of its hinges, startling everyone in there awake.

"All of you up and in the common room. Get your name and address down on a piece of parchment."

After waking all of the boys up, not being the most welcome person in the Slytherin boys' dormitories of all places- especially when most of them were already asleep and those who weren't were trying to fall asleep.

Once everyone had got into the common room, not many of them were cooperating, having only known Holly as someone who was against their house and someone they should hate.

"Prefects I'm going to leave you in charge. Make sure every student under the age of 17 is out of here via the floo network. No one is to leave this room after you two if you choose to stay since there is an unconscious werewolf down the corridor." Holly said before leading anyone willing to follow her out of the common room and down to the kitchens.

Knowing full well not everyone in that room was 17, Holly made all of them stay until someone came to get them.

"What about you? You're only 15!" A Hufflepuff girl asked nervously.

"I don't have much of a choice. You do but I'd rather you all be safe."

"A bit rich coming from you!"

"Yeah! We've heard about what you've been up to."

"Safe isn't the first word that comes to mind." Fred and George alternated.

"Says the two who helped me out in the first place," Holly smirked before running up the stairs to meet up with Tonks.

She was standing just outside the Hall, looking rather pale. As silently as she could, Holly came up behind her and listened in.

"The faster Holly Potter arrives, the less people will die. It's time to see whether she truly cares about you all to come and rescue you since she has escaped from where she was put."

"I want you to go and find Luna Lovegood." Holly whispered, making Tonks jump and knock over a large plant pot that clattered to the floor, and spread soil across the stone. "Tell her you need to know where the diadem is, she says she knows."

"What about you?"

"I should be fine. Probably not but if you can destroy that diadem then there's only one thing left to do."

Tonks' hair began to fade into a midnight blue at the roots before she blinked a few times and it changed back to its usual pinkish-purple colour. She nodded and patted Holly on the shoulder before, as quietly as possible, running down to the kitchens. Wand in hand, Holly edged closer to the Great Hall, which had fallen silent. The scuffing of shoes echoed towards her, so she tucked herself behind one of the heavy doors that were left slightly ajar. She held her breath as Severus Snape stepped out of the Hall and turned his head slowly, analysing the corridor and staircases- he must have heard the commotion going on throughout the castle and emerged from his office. Taking a step back to avoid being spotted, Holly hit her head on the wall, making a soft thudding sound. His slow footsteps edged around the corner as Holly tried to tuck herself further and further behind the door. Almost ready to accept her fate, a low raspy voice caught Snape's attention.

"Come Severus, stop wasting your time. We are to chose who will die first. Should it be the mudblood? Or perhaps one of the blood traitors? Then again, there are the two people who went against their families and therefore, against me!" The voice of Voldemort hissed as Holly could hear him pacing around as if confronting each person he was referring to indevidually, "that is unless your precious little hero comes to save you. I doubt she will though, this is awfully dangerous you see and I don't think a child like her would be up for the task."

"Personally, I think that if the girl had any commen sense she would abandon everyone here and leave someone else to pick up the pieces but Potter is much like her father, unintelligent yet thinks she's the best at everything."

"Shut your mouth Snape! You don't know what James was like! You spent your entire life hating him!" Sirius yelled before his voice was muffled, presumably by one of the many Death Eaters.

"Why, I think I have decided who or first victim shall be. Such a shame he had to be pureblood," Voldemort hissed as Holly came out from behind the door, "kill him."


End file.
